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Write to your MP and call on them to support the V&A, Natural History & Science museums security guards

Write to your MP asking them to support the security guards. Help keep the museums open and avoid strike action by completing the form below

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I am writing as a concerned constituent to urge you to support the security guards at the Natural History Museum and Science Museum in their ongoing industrial dispute. These workers play a crucial role in ensuring the safety of visitors, staff and priceless artefacts, yet they continue to be treated unfairly by their employer, Wilson James. Despite months of campaigning, they remain underpaid, undervalued and denied the same basic rights as other museum staff.

The guards are calling for a wage of £16 an hour, full sick pay from day one and an additional week of annual leave. These demands are entirely reasonable, yet Wilson James has responded with an inadequate offer of £13.15 an hour, backdated to April 2024—a sum that does not even meet the latest London Living Wage of £13.85, implemented on 23 October 2024. There is still no guarantee that the LLW will be backdated and suggestions that it may only be implemented by April 2025 are unacceptable.

I understand that the Government has committed to improving workers' rights, including tackling low pay, removing the lower earnings limit for statutory sick pay and ending exploitative zero-hours contracts. If these commitments are to be meaningful, then it is essential to stand with workers like these guards, who are fighting for basic dignity and fairness in the workplace.

One of the key issues in this dispute is the outsourcing model, which has resulted in security guards being treated as second-class workers. While directly employed museum staff enjoy decent pensions, sick pay and other benefits, the outsourced guards receive the bare minimum. This disparity disproportionately affects black, brown and migrant workers, raising serious concerns about institutional discrimination. The museums cannot absolve themselves of responsibility simply because these workers are employed via an external contractor—they have the power to ensure fair treatment but have so far refused to do so.

Wilson James and the museums claim that meeting these demands is "unaffordable," yet Wilson James doubled its net annual profits to over £7.5 million between 2019 and 2021, while the guards received only a 1.2% pay increase in that period. If their wages had simply kept pace with inflation since 2011, they would now be earning £16 an hour. Instead, they are earning 22% less than this.

This dispute has continued for months, with security guards forced to take several rounds of strike action. They have been left with no choice due to the continued refusal of Wilson James and the museums to engage in meaningful negotiations.

As my MP, I urge you to stand with these workers. I ask you to:

• Publicly support their demands for fair pay, sick pay and equal treatment
 • Call on Wilson James to meet these demands and enter genuine negotiations
 • Press the museums to take responsibility for the conditions of outsourced workers
 • Advocate for the insourcing of security staff to ensure equality across the workforce.

This is a matter of basic fairness and justice. I hope that you will use your position to push for a resolution that upholds the rights and dignity of these workers.

I look forward to your response.

Yours sincerely,

Write to your MP and call on them to support the V&A, Natural History & Science museums security guards

Write to your MP and call on them to support the V&A, Natural History & Science museums security guards

Write to your MP asking them to support the security guards. Help keep the museums open and avoid strike action by completing the form below

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