Settlement means $45 million in gas, electric customer savings - The Boston Globe

Louvre workers announce strike over work conditions and security after $102 million heist

Workers at the Louvre Museum voted Monday for strikes in protest over their work conditions, a ticket-price hike for non-European visitors, and security weaknesses that a brazen daylight theft of France's Crown Jewels highlighted in October. In a letter announcing the strike action starting next Monday, which was addressed to France's culture minister and seen by the Associated Press, the CGT, CFDT, and Sud unions asserted that "visiting the Louvre has become a real obstacle course" for the millions of people who come to admire its huge collections of art and artifacts. The museum is in "crisis," with insufficient resources and "increasingly deteriorated working conditions," said the unions' strike notice to Culture Minister Rachida Dati. "The theft of 19 October 2025 highlighted shortcomings in priorities that had long been reported," the unions alleged. The robbery gang made off with loot worth an estimated $102 million. The museum director subsequently acknowledged a ''terrible failure" in security. In their strike notice, the unions said that antiquated facilities and insufficient staffing are impacting the visitor experience, forcing the closure of some displays. They demanded that resources be focused on building improvements and safeguarding the museum, its collections, visitors, and employees. "We are in a run-down museum which has shown its security weaknesses," Christian Galani, a CGT union official representing Louvre workers, said in an AP interview. He said the strike-action vote by employees on Monday morning was unanimous and that the planned rolling strikes risked forcing the museum's closure. -- ASSOCIATED PRESS

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

OpenAI's artificial intelligence products are saving workers an average of about 40 to 60 minutes a day on professional tasks, according to a large survey conducted by the ChatGPT maker amid lingering skepticism of the economi