V&A Workers Vote to Strike, Citing Amazon-Style Conditions
4July 30, 2026
Employees of London’sVictoria & Albert Museumwho are members of the Prospect trade union on July 29 voted tostrikeover issues including pay, working conditions, and access to water and toilets,The Guardianreports. The V&A operates four museums in the London area: the V&A in South Kensington, V&A East Museum and V&A East Storehouse in Stratford, and Young V&A in Bethnal Green. With 82 percent of Prospect members turning out to vote across these institutions, 83 percent voted for strike action, and 95 percent voted for action short of a strike. 100 percent of workers at the V&A Storehouse voted in favor of the action.
Opened in May 2025, the Storehouse offers visitors access to thousands of works not currently on display at the other institutions. Those employees who facilitate its “order an object” program must remain with the work they are shepherding, taking bathroom breaks only after another colleague arrives to cover them. Like the public they serve, these workers are not allowed to bring food or drink into the institution’s main collection hall or storage areas
“This incredible new way of showing off our heritage is being delivered by workers who are denied adequate break time to use the toilet or have a drink of water,” Prospect general secretary Mike Clancy told The Guardian. “Visitors will be appalled to learn that the kinds of working practices unions campaign against in companies like Amazon also exist in an internationally renowned heritage institution.”
V&A Storehouse employees are lobbying for two paid fifteen-minute breaks. Prospect staffers at all four museums are demanding the V&A obtain accreditation as a London living-wage employer within one year. (The current London living wage is £14.80 [$19.90] per hour.) They are additionally seeking a minimum 4 percent pay increase for staff already earning above the living wage, as well as time-and-a-half for bank holidays.
A separate strike ballot was launched July 23 by the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) London, under whose auspices a second group of V&A workers are organized. That effort was spurred by what union members claim were execrable working conditions to which they were subjected during the recent heat wave that gripped London. Some three hundred workers are expected to vote when the ballot closes on August 20.
Regarding both strike ballots, a V&A spokesperson told The Guardian that the museum has been negotiation with the unions since February. “Our offer sees a 3.6% increase in the overall pay bill, an above-inflation pay award as a minimum, and 6.9% increase for our lowest-paid colleagues,” said the spokesperson. “As always, we have maintained our longstanding commitment to paying at least the London living wage.” The spokesperson maintained that staff had access to water and toilets and were given regular breaks, and cited the introduction of heat-wave response measures including extra breaks, increased staff rotation, and temporary gallery closures.