Because of the heat, a trade union threatens strike action in Venice's museums

An Italian national cross-sector trade union has declared an industrial dispute over the fact that working in Venice's museums has become dangerous. The apparent temperature outside reaches 40 degrees, while inside certain museums it has hovered around 30 for weeks on end. At the National Archaeological Museum, according to the union, staff were given no water and no training in what to do in the event of heatstroke, and the windows and indoor air-conditioning units went unmaintained.

The union describes this as a situation that threatens both the health of the workers and the preservation of the exhibits themselves. The museums reply that the matter has long been under review and that works are planned, and they promise greater flexibility over access to air-conditioned rooms.

For three summers running, in 2022, 2023 and 2024, Italy led Europe in the number of heat-related deaths, and in the summer of 2025 it accounted for a third of all such deaths in the EU