World Class Tour Guides at ‘The Globe Theatre’ Strike Against Second Rate Pay

BECTU members at ‘The Globe Theatre’ are on strike today, (Monday 18 May 2015), seeking fair pay. The Globe Theatre is world famous and tours of the theatre are part of its shop-front to the world. In 2014 more than 350,000 visitors paid to go on a tour of The Globe, an annual increase of 16 per cent, and many thousands of international students were taken on guided tours of the building too. And The Globe Theatre is highly profitable. The 38 tour guides who are on strike today are world-class advocates for the theatre, they are committed to its success and they have more than 200 years experience between them. All they are asking is for pay parity with the tour guides at the Royal Opera House, the Houses of Parliament and the BBC, and a very modest recognition of their contribution to The Globe Theatre’s immense success.  At The Globe theatre the guides regularly lead groups of 60 visitors with each adult paying £13.50. The guides are asking for £13.50 an hour, as fair recognition of their skills, increased responsibilities, their commitment and their contribution to the theatre’s growing success. As Shakespeare might have said, ‘let all the boats rise together’. Employers are fond of saying ‘our greatest asset is our people’; well, it is time for The Globe Theatre to give its tour guides pay justice and respect at work.

SERTUC was pleased to visit the pickets this morning to offer solidarity greetings from the Regional Council, and found the pickets to be in good spirits and well armed with erudite and properly referenced quotations.

Messages of support can be sent from unions and members of the public to BECTU at pstyles@bectu.org.uk. The campaign and negotiations continue, and if a resolution is not achieved before the end of May, there will be another day of strike action 1 June 2015.         

Laurie Heselden

@TUCLaurieHeseld

Megan Dobney

@mdobney