Europe 1 with AFP / Photo credit: LUDOVIC MARIN / AFP 5:25 p.m., January 29, 2024

The Minister of Culture, Rachida Dati, announced Monday in a press release the "end of the social conflict at the Pompidou center", some of the staff of which went on strike in October, fearing for their future during a planned closure for five years. If it signed the protocol, the CFDT denounced the “method” used by the ministry and management to put an end to the social movement.

Barely arriving at the Ministry of Culture, Rachida Dati unilaterally announced on Monday "the end of the social conflict" at the Center Pompidou in Paris, where some of the agents went on strike in October, fearing for their future in anticipation of its closure for five years. 

“Stalled situation”

"I am pleased to announce, today, the signing, between the Center Pompidou and the trade union organizations, SPCP-FO and CFDT-Culture, of the memorandum of understanding relating to the support of the teams during the work which it will carry out "object between 2025 and 2030 thanks to the support of the State", wrote the minister in a press release which she signed, a few hours before her wishes to the actors and the press. “This agreement provides guarantees to the agents of the Center Pompidou in anticipation of the closure of the main building,” assures Rachida Dati in her text, without specifying the content of this memorandum of understanding or what guarantees are involved. 

“As soon as I arrived at the Ministry of Culture, I wanted to put an end to this bogged-down situation. One hundred days of strike is unprecedented in the history of the Center Pompidou,” underlines the minister who did not went to the Center Pompidou before this announcement to meet the agents. She said she was delighted that “the agents can continue their work in peace, with the support of their managers, so that the Center Pompidou continues to open its doors to many visitors.”

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After months of stagnation in the conflict without a precise timetable for negotiations demanded by the unions, the agents had massively voted back the strike during the last general assembly on January 11 and the inter-union had extended the strike notice at the beginning of January until the 15 FEBRUARY.

The “method” denounced by the CFDT

The memorandum of understanding, consulted by AFP, provides in particular that management and the ministry request each year that the employment ceiling be maintained during budgetary conferences prior to the preparation of the finance bill. There are currently around a thousand agents. It also provides that the closure of the main building will not cause "any forced departure" and that "the scope of activities currently outsourced by service will not be modified except marginally after advice from the Social Council of Directors (CSA)", a point on which the CFDT assured AFP that it would remain “vigilant”.

If it signed the protocol, the CFDT denounced the "method" used by the ministry and management to put an end to the social movement, "certain trade union organizations (CFDT and FO, Editor's note) having been invited to the signature on Friday and no others (CGT, Unsa, SUD, Editor’s note)”. “It’s a strange process to get out of a social conflict that has lasted for more than three months while we were all together,” regretted Nathalie Ramos (CGT) to AFP, deploring having been put “in front of the fait accompli” and having “not been able to discuss the latest proposals with the staff at a general meeting”. “We still see that this activation of things falls on the day of the minister’s wishes, coincidence or not?”, she asked.

Asbestos removal work

The staff of the Center Pompidou in Paris, also called Beaubourg and which houses one of the most important museums of modern and contemporary art in the world as well as a library very popular with students, asked for guarantees on the maintenance of the employment ceiling and non-outsourcing of their missions during the closure of the place.

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Inaugurated almost half a century ago, it must remain closed until 2030 for major asbestos removal and restoration work. The staff were also worried about the “dispersal of the collections”, particularly abroad, during the closure of the museum. Some of them went on strike on October 16, causing around twenty days of closure of the Center Pompidou, which was closed daily during the Christmas school holidays.