British Library Staff Take Strike Action Over Pay Dispute
Workers at the British Library staged industrial action on 27 October 2025 in a dispute over pay and working conditions. Members of the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) formed picket lines outside the iconic cultural institution, highlighting what they describe as "poverty wages" that leave many staff struggling to meet basic living costs.
The Human Cost of Cultural Underfunding
According to union surveys, the situation for library staff has reached crisis point. 71% of workers reported their salaries are insufficient to cover essential needs, with many forced to take second jobs or live in substandard accommodation. The mental and physical health of staff has deteriorated under financial pressure, while they also face abuse from frustrated patrons following recent cyber-attack disruptions.
The irony isn't lost on observers: while executives earning six-figure salaries qualify for five-figure bonuses, frontline staff are told there's no money for inflation-matching pay increases. This disparity raises fundamental questions about Britain's commitment to cultural workers.
Government Priorities Under Scrutiny
The dispute reflects broader issues in cultural funding. The Department for Culture, Media and Sport faced a 1.4% funding cut in the latest spending review, while the government committed £2 billion to artificial intelligence initiatives over the next four years.
As novelist Zadie Smith noted in her speech supporting the strikers on 8 November, even the government's own AI tool for civil servants borrows from human culture - named "Humphrey" after a 1970s television show, the scripts of which are preserved in the very library whose workers struggle to survive.
The British Library houses what Virginia Woolf called "an enormous mind" - collections containing everything from Plato and Shakespeare to contemporary British works. Yet the staff who maintain this cultural treasury and serve researchers and readers daily cannot afford basic living standards.
This strike forces us to confront uncomfortable questions about what Britain truly values. Is culture merely part of our heritage brand, or do we genuinely support the living cultural workers who maintain our global reputation?
