CGIL attacks Trento's Muse: "seeks volunteers instead of valuing professionals"

An announcement by the Muse, Trento’s Science Museum, drew a harsh attack from the CGIL this afternoon. What happened? The Trento museum, last Aug. 24, relaunched an announcement on Facebook from last February, in which the institute invited volunteers, with a deadline of Sept. 1. The requirements: 16 years of age or older, ability to reach the museum independently, ability to volunteer for at least six months, willingness to get involved, good teamwork skills, desire for discovery and knowledge. All for a meal voucher for at least five continuous hours, reimbursement for transportation expenses (public transportation or private transportation if there is no public connection), insurance coverage, T-shirt and badge, and a certificate of cooperation.

Already under the announcement, however, the ire of users had been aroused. Some have pointed the finger at the phrase “teamwork” (since, being volunteer, it is assumed that one does not “work”), still others object to the fact that an institution of the size and importance of the Science Museum seeks volunteers instead of turning to professionals, there are those who let Muse know that there are professional workers who have always been dedicated to the museum, those who urge the museum to be more courageous, those who question why the museum needs to seek volunteers, and those who point out the fact that, in recent years, the museum has lost 92 guides who used to work there and now no longer serve.

The Muse responded to the criticism with an articulate comment to the same post. “It’s about,” the institute wrote, “the contribution of volunteers, people who are willing to make themselves available because they are curious, interested and willing to learn more about the topics we cover in the museum and willing to offer their contribution, willing to put themselves on the line in their free time. They therefore make their time available free of charge, without a fixed rule or predetermined schedule, during which they work alongside Muse staff: never left alone to perform a substitute task, never burdened with the responsibilities that remain with salaried staff. The volunteer working in a cultural institution, in a museum, regardless of the tasks he or she performs, participates in a wide range of activities, all of which have as their main goal precisely participation, sharing. The goal is to come to feel the institution closer to oneself, to take ownership of it and consider the museum for what it is: an asset that belongs to the community. Volunteers are the people who participate out of passion in our research campaigns, who find opportunities to interact with the artifacts in our naturalistic collections, who find themselves in socializing and energetic contexts as in the case of the events in which they participate by collaborating and never replacing the professionals who hold formal and operational responsibility for the museum’s activities. Therefore, it is not a matter of replacing the functions of Muse’s more than 250 workers but of creating a space for participation that is fully part of the notion of openness, inclusion and service to the community. A criterion at the very core of the museum’s mission.”

There have also been those who have likened Muse to small museums that rely on the contribution of volunteers or unpaid labor, as in the case, which has risen to national headlines, of the Deruta Ceramics Museum, which offered a director’s position without compensation. “It is not recognizing the facts to play at reducing the Muse to a small volunteer museum,” the institute defended itself, “or to recall as a positive the absurd case of the Deruta Museum, for which the local government announced a competition for lsquo;volunteer’ director. The very reference cited in the post makes it clear how this proposal was considered nonsense by the entire cultural community precisely in recognizing the tasks and intensity of work to be devoted to a museum of such importance as the Deruta ceramics museum.”

“Returning to our museum and moving away from the easy keyboard game,” the Muse concluded, “it should be remembered that it is a prominent institution in the national and international context also with regard to numbers: it has created hundreds of jobs, attracted millions of visitors, and produced an economic spin-off to the benefit of the Trentino territory that is definitely considerable. Those who play on this should go and read our social balance sheets to understand what we are talking about.”

It is from thetopic of guides that the reprimand of Cgil Funzione Pubblica Trentino begins, which responded point by point to the Muse’s defense. “Faced with a ’diaspora’ of 92 guides who have left the museum,” the union writes in a note, “we find unacceptable the words used by Muse within the recent post. Heavy words and from which does not emerge a rethinking of certain labor policies that have been shown to fail over time, as among other things widely denounced over the years by FP CGIL. The post defines the volunteers: people who ’make their time available for free, without a fixed rule and predetermined schedule, during which they work alongside Muse staff.’ Staff who largely depend on cooperatives because they are outsourced, who formally have part-time contracts, but who, in fact, have to work weeks full time and weeks zero hours. Staff who see their commitment rise or fall to zero depending on the museum’s needs, with no certainty of shifts except at very short notice. They do not have a predetermined schedule (due to organizational choices by Muse) and are called upon to work without fixed rules, that is, they have two of the three characteristics of the volunteer according to Muse. They do, however, receive remuneration. Miserable: on average, 800 euros, despite degrees, master’s degrees and foreign languages spoken. Such low salaries, why? Because the aforementioned Ronchey law was used by including contractual conditions in the tender that mortified the high-profile professionals the museum has used over the years to carry out the tasks of dissemination and teaching of science.”

“The special specifications,” the CGIL continues, “while recognizing, following strong pressure exerted by the CGIL, the normative economic treatment relative to the Federculture CCNL, has debased this effort, assigning levels inadequate to the tasks required: the guides (who by the specifications must have a university degree and know at least one foreign language), have been recognized as level B2, that is, that due to professional profiles for which a professional diploma is sufficient. But for the Muse to ask for staff enhancement is to trivialize the issue of volunteers.”

“What we hope,” the union continues, “is that a certain model does not take root in the museums of Trentino as well, where instead the problems related to outsourcing that are highly penalizing for staff must be definitively addressed and overcome. We have repeatedly asked Muse and the Province to reflect on the advisability of reinternalizing the guiding and educational services that, precisely the Muse, in its transition from the old Natural History Museum to its current location, has been able to ”exploit“ in order to open up to ever larger audiences, with a radical change in perspective and programming of activities. And of this innovation, educational services have been the main architects as can also be deduced from the social budgets of the past years. Reason being that it is unacceptable for them to be relegated to mere ancillary services, as is evident from the statements of the Muse. All the more so, that the same institution already has internally virtuous contractual relations toward part of the staff that performs the role of guide at its territorial offices.” Finally, the CGIL note concludes, “it remains to be understood what there is of ’normal’, as the criteria adopted in the message launched by the Muse through Facebook were defined, in this affair that reveals an obvious lack of professional recognition within a prestigious cultural institution of considerable strategic importance for the Trentino territory.”

Image: the Muse. Ph. Credit Matteo De Stefano

CGIL attacks Trento's Muse: "seeks volunteers instead of valuing professionals"

Warning: the translation into English of the original Italian article was created using automatic tools. We undertake to review all articles, but we do not guarantee the total absence of inaccuracies in the translation due to the program. You can find the original by clicking on the ITA button. If you find any mistake,please contact us.