• Protest A strike threatens the great exhibition of the Picasso Museum in Malaga

The hundred employees of the Picasso Museum in Malaga, which will turn 20 next October, have launched a 'rebellion' to try to improve their working conditions, which are at the tail end of those enjoyed by workers of similar art galleries in the rest of the country. On average, they receive about 10,000 euros per year less than their best-paid colleagues, who are those who work at the Bilbao Museum of Fine Arts. Nor do they charge triennia, or bonuses, according to the comparative study between agreements of different museums prepared by the employees of the Malaga museum, to which EL MUNDO had access.

To try to reverse this situation, the staff of the Malaga art gallery has initiated mobilizations, precisely, when the Picasso Year is being celebrated around the world, with exhibitions and all kinds of events to honor the Malaga painter on the fiftieth anniversary of his death.

In the context of these tributes, the Malaga museum plans to inaugurate the great exhibition The Echo of Picasso on October 2, an event threatened by the call of the workers of a strike of five consecutive days full-time – from the 18th to the 22nd of this month – to try to "unlock and advance" in the negotiation of their agreement.

The employees have been negotiating with the company for ten months their working conditions with zero progress, as explained to this newspaper Pepa Babot, president of the works council of the Picasso Museum in Malaga. In these ten months, employees have made several strikes, concentrations and next September 14 are cited in the Extrajudicial System for the Resolution of Labor Disputes in Andalusia (Sercla) with the company to try to reach an agreement and avoid the strike called at the end of the month.

The staff of the Malaga museum is composed of 89 permanent workers that rise to more than a hundred when temporary exhibitions are organized that force to hire more staff. The collective complains that their salaries are well below what employees of other similar museums charge, despite the fact that, currently, the Picasso Museum in Malaga is among the ten most visited art centers in the country and among the hundred internationally.

On average, employees in Malaga receive about 10,000 euros less per year than their best-paid colleagues, who are those who work at the Bilbao Museum of Fine Arts, according to the comparative analysis prepared by the works council. Thus, for example, an assistant earns 16,003 euros per year in the Picasso Museum, compared to the 26,923 euros he receives in the aforementioned museum of the Basque Country. There are differences in all scales: the technicians charge 26,280 euros in the Malaga art gallery and 33,221 in the Fine Arts of Bilbao.

It is curious that in the Prado Museum, the base salaries are similar to those of the Picasso Museum in Malaga, although in the Madrid art gallery, employees are paid with a host of perfectly regulated supplements, which do not appear in the agreement of the Malaga art gallery.

"We do not know what complements there are, nor their economic value, nor how to request them, nor how they are granted, nor who has them, being a private foundation," explained Pepa Babot. The works council intends that these bonuses are included and detailed in the agreement, "like so many other things that should be more transparent", taking into account the contributions of public funds from the Junta de Andalucía.

But it's not just a matter of money. Contrary to what happens in other museums, employees in Malaga do not receive three-year periods, nor do they have training plans regulated by the company -except for occupational risks- and work about a hundred hours a year more than the staff of other museums in the country. The training, according to the works council, is at the expense of being authorized by the boss. Nor do they charge bonuses for night shifts, diets or mileage. In addition, 11 of the 14 holidays of the year work. In other art galleries in the country, holidays are paid separately.

During the negotiation of the agreement, the company offered a wage increase of 8%, but most of the workers rejected it because it implied worsening in other issues, such as the continuous working day. Now, it coincides with the school holidays, but the company intended to limit it to the months of July and August. In those negotiations, they have been threatened with outsourcing services, according to the president of the works council.

This newspaper tried, unsuccessfully, to obtain the version of the company about this conflict, through calls and emails that did not get a response.

The Picasso Museum in Malaga has public funding from the Junta de Andalucía, but is managed by a private foundation. Therefore, the workers appeal to the Andalusian Administration to unclog the conflict, but, for now, the Andalusian Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Sport, whose owner Arturo Bernal is an ex officio patron of the foundation that governs the museum, alleges that they can do little in this matter because they do not participate directly in the management. The Board can only urge the parties to sit down and negotiate, sources from the Ministry told this newspaper.


A PRIVATE FOUNDATION THAT RECEIVES $4.37 MILLION FROM THE BOARD EACH YEAR


The Picasso Museum in Malaga is managed by a private foundation, but receives public money. The last contribution of the Andalusian Government was decided on June 6, when the Governing Council authorized a subsidy, corresponding to the year 2023, of 4,378,557 euros for the 'Fundación Museo Picasso Málaga. Legacy Paul, Christine and Bernard Ruiz-Picasso', an institution whose purpose is the conservation, exhibition and dissemination of the life and work of the painter from Malaga.

The involvement of the Board with the Malaga museum is total. In fact, in April 2022, the Governing Council was held at the museum's headquarters, within the tour of meetings that have been developed by the different provinces and outside its usual place, which is the Palacio de San Telmo in Seville, headquarters of the Presidency of the Board. The governing body of the foundation is a board of trustees composed of 22 members, whose trustees exercise their position without remuneration. The Andalusian president, Juanma Moreno, and Christine Ruiz-Picasso, daughter-in-law of the painter, are the honorary presidents. The Board is represented in 50% of the museum's governing bodies, according to the works council.

  • art
  • Malaga
  • Juan Manuel Moreno Bonilla
  • Strikes
  • Articles Silvia Moreno