Museum and Library workers in Wales to protest over £8m cuts

Public and Commercial Services (PCS) union members in Wales are next week holding a protest outside the Senedd against £8m cuts to the National Library of Wales and seven museums.

The union says the institutions – including the National Museum Cardiff, National Waterfront Museum, National Slate Museum, National Roman Legion Museum, St Fagan’s National Museum of History, Big Pit National Coal Museum and National Wool Museum – protect the nation’s historical and cultural legacy and calls on the Welsh Government to increase spending on them instead of cutting funding by as much as 22%.

If the cuts continue, the union fears more than 150 jobs could be lost in the next two years.

The protest will take place outside the Senedd in Cardiff Bay from 11am to 3pm on February 27.

PCS general secretary Fran Heathcote said: “Following a decade of underfunding, the culture sector in Wales has been hit particularly hard by cuts in the draft budget.

“We’ve made it clear that we want to engage with the museum and the library to help mitigate the impact of these cuts but we will resist any compulsory job losses.”

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