< News

28.01.2025 / News / Natural History, Science and V&A Museums

Security guards at Natural History Museum, Science Museum and V&A urge public to not visit museums during historic month-long strike in February

“We have been ignored and treated with utter disdain for too long. We have been undermined but we do not undermine ourselves. We are strong, united and we will work hard to get justice.”- Bayo Owolabi, security guard and UVW representative at Science Museum.

Over 100 security guards at the Science Museum, Natural History Museum, and V&A Museum are escalating their fight for dignity, equality, and fair treatment with a historic month-long strike running every day from 1 to 28 February. The guards, who are members of the trade union United Voices of the World (UVW), are holding firm in their dispute and urging the public to stand in solidarity with them by boycotting the museums for the entire month of February. This unprecedented action will mark 50 total strike days at the museums and make it the longest strike in the history of all three institutions.

In a significant escalation, security guards at the Young V&A Museum in Bethnal Green and the V&A East Museum in Stratford have also joined the dispute, demanding the same equality of terms and conditions as directly employed museum workers. The workers, who are outsourced to private security contractor Wilson James, are fighting for a pay rise to £16 per hour, sick pay from day one, and full parity with directly employed museum staff, including more annual leave and an annual bonus. 

The majority of these workers, who have been underpaid and undervalued for far too long, are from Black, brown and migrant backgrounds. This stands in stark contrast to the directly employed museum staff, who are predominantly white British.

By maintaining an outsourcing system that provides white British staff with better sick leave, annual leave, pensions and other benefits than their outsourced colleagues, the museums are perpetuating a deeply unequal structure. This disparity raises serious concerns about institutional racism and the failure to uphold equality within these institutions.

The guards have endured years of stagnant wages, including six years of frozen pay and a mere 1.2% increase between 2019 and 2021, despite their employer’s profits doubling to over £7.6 million annually during the same period. The Museums make millions of pounds annually and have seen record growth in recent years. According to the Natural History Museum Annual Report and Accounts 2023-24, the museum saw “a record year for visitor numbers, just shy of 6.0m (2023: 5.3m), generating an increase in visitor related income, total income grew to £135.5m (2023: £117.0m).” The Science Museum’s Annual Report and Accounts 2023–24 also boasts of “a record-breaking year for profit, aided by an increase in visitors, benefiting visitor-related income” and celebrates their “self generated unrestricted income” reach a five-year high. Overall, “(…) the Group’s funds increased by £23.2m to a total of £659.3m at 31 March 2024 (2023: £636.1m). At March 2024 the Group’s expendable reserves have increased to £95.8m (2022–23: £89.0m)”

By contrast, before the strike action, security guards earned just £11.95 per hour, well below the cost of living in London. In August 2023, Wilson James offered a minimal raise to £13.15 per hour—a figure described by workers as “insulting.” This offer failed to address years of stagnant wages and pay freezes.

Even after the London Living Wage (LLW) increased to £13.85 in 2023, Wilson James refused to implement it immediately or backdate the earlier LLW rate of £13.15 to November 2023, when it was first announced. The company refuses to engage with the guards’ union UVW.

UVW urges the public to stand with the guards by not visiting the museums throughout February. Together, we can send a clear message to Wilson James and museum management: exploitation and discrimination has no place in these cultural spaces.

SHARE