Union members at Royal Museums Greenwich to strike

Royal Museums Greenwich (RMG) is facing a strike after members of the Prospect union voted for industrial action.

The union is hoping to secure improvements to pay and working conditions at RMG, which operates the National Maritime Museum, Royal Observatory, Cutty Sark and the Queen's House in Greenwich, London.

Prospect, which represents heritage workers across national and regional museums and galleries, has several hundred members at RMG. The union said that 77% of those who voted supported strike action on a turnout of 90%, while 88% voted in favour of action short of a strike. Members will strike on 11-12 August.

Union members are seeking London Living Wage accreditation this year; protection of existing Christmas closure annual leave arrangements; paid breaks for security workers; stronger policies on fixed-term contracts; and improved training and development opportunities.

Mike Clancy, general secretary of Prospect, said: “Our members don’t want to take strike action, but they have been left with no choice by the attitude taken by senior management.   

“We’ve already achieved progress, having recently agreed a two-year pay settlement with RMG after successful negotiations. It is not too late to for them to avoid this strike. They need to keep negotiating and give us some movement on what are very reasonable demands.”

An RMG statement said: “RMG has been in constructive negotiations with Prospect including a formal ACAS conciliation meeting in July. Those negotiations have already produced a two-year pay settlement covering 2026/27 and 2027/28, which has been agreed by Prospect and implemented.

“The remaining areas of dispute relate to a small number of non-pay matters on which the union and RMG has already had a meeting with ACAS, who recorded progress and a constructive way forward as RMG made a series of commitments, including engagement with the London Living Wage Foundation.

‘Prospect members have voted in favour of strike action, and we have received notice of discontinuous strike action on 11 and 12 August. We are disappointed by this outcome, particularly given the progress which has been made.”

RMG said it plans to keep the museum sites open during the strike.

The strike at RMG comes just shortly Prospect announced that members working at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London had voted for industrial action in two separate disputes over pay and conditions. 

Elsewhere, members of the Prospect union working at London Museum accepted a 3.5% pay increase in mid-April, bringing an ongoing industrial dispute to a close.

London Museum employees went on strike on 24 February in protest against what they described as an unacceptable pay increase in 2025, and continued with ongoing action short of a full strike thereafter.