Sawt Falasteen - Louvre trade unions call for rolling strike next week

The announcement came a day after the world's most visited museum admitted to a major leak in late November and nearly two months after an embarrassing heist in which French crown jewels were stolen from its permanent collection.

In between those two incidents, it had to close a gallery containing ancient Greek ceramics over fears for the safety of a ceiling.

Three unions -- the CGT, Sud and the CFDT -- called for a rolling strike starting Monday December 15 which was voted for at a staff meeting of around 200 employees "with unanimity", CFDT official Valerie Baud told AFP.

If followed widely by the Louvre's 2,100-strong workforce, it could lead to the closure of the institution in the run-up to the Christmas holidays when Paris is full of festive holidaymakers.

The Louvre was forced to shut temporarily on June 16 this year after gallery attendants, ticket agents and security personnel organised a spontaneous walk-out over what they see as understaffing and overcrowding.

In a joint letter addressed to Culture Minister Rachida Dati on Monday, the unions wrote that parts of the Louvre were being regularly closed because of "insufficient staff numbers as well as technical failures and the building's ageing condition".

"The public now has only limited access to the artworks and has trouble moving around. A visit to the Louvre has become a real obstacle course," they added, according to a copy seen by AFP.

On Sunday, the museum's deputy administrator, Francis Steinbock, said that an open valve in the heating and ventilation system had caused water damage to 300 to 400 journals, books and documents in the Egyptian department.

The damaged items date from the late 19th and early 20th centuries and are "extremely useful" but are "by no means unique", Steinbock added.

On October 19, a four-person gang raided the museum in broad daylight, stealing jewellery worth an estimated $102 million in just seven minutes before fleeing on scooters.

The incident has highlighted major security vulnerabilities and heaped pressure on government-appointed Louvre boss Laurence des Cars.

She has called it "an immense wound that has been inflicted upon us".

Des Cars and unions had warned repeatedly before the break-in about conditions inside the Louvre and the cost of maintaining the vast former royal palace.

The home of Leonardo da Vinci's "Mona Lisa" welcomed 8.7 million people last year.

I.Matar--SF-PST