Italian Trade Union Announces Labor Dispute Over Severe Heat in Venice Museums
8July 20, 2026
TheUnione Sindacale di Base(USB), a major trade union organization based in Italy, has formallyannouncedalabordispute over dangerous conditions for museum workers in Venice. Labor conditions, the group says, have grown perilous due to extreme heat—both in the area in general and within the museums themselves—and strike action being taken is now a possibility.
Perceived temperatures, the USB said, have climbed as high as 40C (104 degrees Fahrenheit), leaving workers vulnerable to exhaustion and heatstroke; the claims also state that temperatures inside certain Venice museums have been as high as 30C (86°F) for weeks. The employees that are being affected, the USB toldtheArt Newspaper, include workers for museums within two clusters: the National Archaeological Museums of Venice and the Lagoon and the Veneto Regional Directorate of National Museums.
Management at the National Archaeological Museum of Venice, the union claimed, have neglected to provide staffers with water or training for handling a heatstroke. According to the union, the museum has failed to maintain upkeep on both its windows and its fan coils.
The present state of working conditions in certain Venice museums, the USB said, represent “an intolerable situation that not only jeopardises the health and safety of workers, but also seriously undermines the dignity of the visitor experience and the very protection of the artistic heritage on display.” The USB also said that while museum management have disseminated verbal instructions to museum staffers regarding the heat, the USB has requested that written guidelines be distributed as well.
In joint statements to the Art Newspaper, museums said that the “reported issues have long been the attention of the relevant offices, which have carried out the necessary inspections and scheduled the required works.”
These “issues,” the organizations said, have also prompted the museum bodies to introduce “greater flexibility” to the accessibility of air-conditioned spaces to museum staffers.
According to the research group Zero Carbon Analytics, Italy recorded the most heat-related deaths out of any European country during the summers of 2022, 2023 and 2024. Additionally, per ZCA, one third of all the heat-related deaths in the EU within the summer of 2025 took place in Italy.