AUDIO – STAFF AT THE LOUVRE GOES ON STRIKE OVER TOO MANY TOURISTS
The Louvre, the world’s most-visited museum in the world, shut down unexpectedly on Monday when the staff went on strike. During a pre-opening staff meeting, workers complained that the institution has too many tourists and not enough staff to handle them. Gallery attendants, ticket agents, and security personnel refused to take up their posts in protest over unmanageable crowds, chronic understaffing, and what one union called “untenable” working conditions. Meanwhile, thousands of stranded and confused visitors, tickets in hand, were standing in unmoving lines in the courtyard entrance to the museum. The Louvre welcomed 8.7 million visitors last year — more than double what its infrastructure was designed to accommodate. Even with a daily cap of 30,000, staff say the experience has become a daily test of endurance, with too few rest areas, limited bathrooms, and summer heat.
* Here’s what you do: put the Mona Lisa at the top of the Eiffel Tower, make tourists climb the steps to see it. That’ll cut the crowds by half.
* Then give everybody waiting outside in the hot sun all the free cheese they can eat. There’s another 30 percent that won’t make it to the front door.
* Convert the museum tour to a Disney-type ride. Get in the little cars, zip through, get off and get out, we got another bunch waiting.
* Crowds of ticketholders piling up at the entrance? When all else fails – “Release the hounds!!” (see audio clip)
CLIP: The Simpsons’ Mr. Burns gives the order to “Release the hounds!”
