NATIONAL Gallery stewards on their second stint of strike action this year will finally head to conciliation talks today amid accusations of management stalling.

On the first day of the five-day strike yesterday managers were forced to close much of the gallery apart from rooms being staffed by security contractor CIS.

Public-sector union PCS is locked in a bitter dispute with gallery executives over plans to privatise security and visitor services. Bosses drafted in CIS to staff the recent Rembrandt exhibition but they have remained on site in the Sainsbury wing since the show ended last month.

The parties held talks at conciliation service Acas on January 30 but a union source said management representatives had not made themselves available for a follow-up meeting till now.

“They’ve said that PCS hasn’t been willing to talk but it’s the other way round,” said the source.

A National Gallery spokeswoman did not respond to the Star’s query about the timing of conciliation talks.

But the gallery said: “We believe the proposed changes are essential to enable us to deliver an enhanced service to our six million annual visitors for many years to come, and to remain as one of the world’s leading art galleries.”

In a move of defiance, the union is refusing to remove victimised rep Candy Udwin from its negotiating team. Ms Udwin was suspended on the eve of the last strike for an alleged confidentiality breach.

The source said the suspension had backfired and added credence to the union’s claims over the gallery’s heavy-handed approach.

“People outside the gallery don’t expect this sort of institution to behave like that,” they said.

CIS guards, whose contracts ban them from sitting down, were seen yesterday standing next to empty chairs in the few rooms that remained open.

A picket-line rally yesterday saw speeches from Bakers, Food and Allied Workers Union leader Ronnie Draper and author Owen Jones, who asked: “Is there nothing they won’t flog off?”

Striking workers will demonstrate outside the BBC’s Culture Question Time recording at Broadcasting House in central London today and protesters will target their message at billionaire gallery chairman Mark Getty at a rally and march on Thursday.

conradlandin@peoples-press.com