A MAN wearing a toga led a picket down Liverpool’s Pier Head on Saturday as the city’s museum workers began an eight-week strike over pay.
Staff at seven museums voted to walk out last month after National Museums Liverpool (NML) failed to implement a £1,500 cost-of-living payment promised last year.
The workers took part in nationwide strikes called by the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) last April, along with 130,000 staff in the civil and public sector, which won a pay rise of at least 4.5 per cent and the promise of a cost-of-living payment.
Staff say NML is the only one of the 207 employers not to have honoured the pledge.
NML director Laura Pye, who takes home £150,000 in pay and benefits, claimed that the payout was “unaffordable.”
The Museum of Liverpool, the World Museum, the International Slavery Museum and the Maritime Museum, the Walker Art Gallery, Sudley House and the Lady Lever Art Gallery are all set to be affected by the strikes.
The picket initially began outside the World Museum but moved to the Museum of Liverpool after management announced that they were opening for the day.
Matt Exley, who works across all seven museums as a participation producer, dressed as Zeus for the occasion.
He described seeing colleagues eating Weetabix for lunch, people choosing between heating and eating and being unable to afford to have their wheelchairs serviced.
“Once you see all of that on a daily basis, you understand what this £1,500 would mean to people. It would be transformative,” he said.
On museum management deeming the sum unaffordable, he said: “I won’t take lessons on how to live with poverty wages from people that aren’t on poverty wages.”
Ella Roose, a duty manager at the Maritime Museum, pointed out that the museum director was on the same money as the Prime Minister.
She said that NML could find the money when they wanted to, “but when it comes to supporting their staff, all of a sudden there’s nothing.”
Leila Gwynne, a participation programme manager who was dressed up as the Greek goddess Hera, said: “As museum folk, we’re incredibly passionate about galleries and museums.
“We fight tooth and nail to keep them open.
“We are heartbroken that this has happened, but where we stand is it is the only move that we have available to us at this time.”
