Sat urday 31 Aug ust 2019 The Guardian •
National^21
Hundreds
of Science
Museum
staff strike
over pay
Amy Walker and Helen Pidd
Staff at Science Museum sites across
England began a 24-hour strike yester-
day in a protest over low pay.
The action comes after the group’s
directors refused to increase a below
infl ation 1.5% pay rise off ered to more
than 75% of staff earlier this year.
Yesterday hundreds of workers
picketed outside museums in London,
Manchester, Bradford, York and Wilt-
shire. Laurel Mackie, 42, an explainer
- who helps to put on shows and dem-
onstrations at the Science Museum in
South Kensington, London – joined
the crowd with her seven-year-old
son, Albert. Because her pay is below
the London living wage, Mackie said
aff ording childcare in the capital was
a struggle. “Travel is expensive too,”
she said. “I have to think about what
time of day I travel, which can be a bit
of a rush when you’re with a child.”
Although she urged the Science
Museum Group (SMG) to pay their staff
a real living wage, as have the nearby
Natural History and V&A museums,Mackie emphasised that she loved
her job. “In this age where truth is
crucial, it’s important to know what
is fact and what isn’t ,” she said. “Bring-
ing children and adolescents here can
introduce them to that.”
Prospect, the union representing
striking SMG staff , said below-infl a-
tion pay rises had left workers with a13% real terms pay cut since 2010. They
said the average salary among those
picketing in London was £23,000 – a
rise of 1.6% between 2014 and 2018 –
while the SMG director, Ian Blatchford,
was given a bonus of between £20,000
and £25,000 last year.
The strike meant that some activ-
ities were not running at the SouthKensington museum, the National Sci-
ence and Media Museum in Bradford,
the Museum of Science and Industry
in Manchester, the National Railway
Museum in York and the National
Collections Centre in Wroughton,
Wiltshire.
Outside the Science and Industry
Museum in Manchester, striking staff
waved signs punning on the muse-
um’s exhibits. “Fair pay – it’s not rocket
science” read one, a reference to Ste-
phenson’s Rocket.
Front-of-house staff at the museum
earn £8.70 an hour, 30p under the real
national living wage, said the strikers.
Steve Roberts, a negotiations offi cer
at Prospect, said SMG made a surplus
of £4m and could aff ord to pay staff
properly. He said the public were
“surprised that dedicated staff aren’t
getting a decent standard of pay”.
Victor Durban, who was visiting
the museum with his wife, Marian,
and four-year-old grandson, Joseph,
said he supported the strike. “What’s
disgusting is the salary the director is
getting and yearly bonuses too. You
don’t think about these things .”
A spokesperson for SMG said: “Our
pay off er included a 6.9% increase for
the lowest paid employees as part of
a settlement that saw all employees
receive an increase of at least 1.5%.
“Overall the settlement represents a
2.7% increase in salary costs, which we
believe was a reasonable off er, given
the challenging fi nancial picture.”▼ Staff on strike outside the Science
Museum in London. Some museum
activities were aff ected by the action
PHOTOGRAPH: GUY SMALLMAN/GETTYRELEASED BY "What's News" vk.com/wsnws TELEGRAM: t.me/whatsnws