Art Centre Melbourne workers face a battle between industrial and cultural policy

Vidisha Sanghvi/Unsplash For the first time in decades, union members at Arts Centre Melbourne (ACM) are taking protected industrial action.

Over the last month, workers have taken their campaign to audiences, leafleting patrons and opening a Melbourne Symphony Orchestra (MSO) performance with an announcement about pay and conditions.

Last week, union members stopped work for 30 minutes ahead of an MSO performance.

The action follows stalled wage negotiations between ACM management and members of the Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance, Community and Public Sector Union Victoria, and Electrical Trades Union.

More than 95% of union members voted in favour of protected industrial action.

According to the unions , ACM staff wages have fallen 10% behind inflation since 2022, while almost 40% of the workforce is paid at the minimum award rate.

In line with the Victorian government’s wage cap, management has offered a 3% pay increase, but under current cost-of-living pressures, members argue this amounts to a cut in real wages .

The dispute is unfolding amid broader funding crises across Australia’s arts and cultural sectors.

In Victoria alone, state funding has reduced by over $20 million since 2022.

For the unions, these issues are interrelated.

In a joint petition , members are calling on Victorian Minister for Creative Industries Vicki Ward to “increase funding to Arts Centre Melbourne and give workers a real pay increase that reverses years of real wage decline.” These are serious concerns, for the livelihoods of ACM workers and for sustaining Melbourne’s cultural life .

Yet these joint demands highlight a tension between industrial and cultural policy.

Where in most other industries bargaining occurs between workers and employers, in subsidised cultural institutions wage negotiations are often inseparable from questions of government support.

Before arts funding Cultural and industrial policy were not always so closely intertwined.