The Eiffel Tower “will not open” on Friday February 23, for the fifth day in a row, announced Stéphane Dieu, union delegate of the General Confederation of Labor (CGT), to Agence France-Presse (AFP). The protesters are awaiting a “writing from the City”, owner of the monument and ultra-majority shareholder of the Eiffel Tower Operating Company (SETE). Friday morning, the inter-union (CGT and Force Ouvrière) organized a general assembly to decide on the follow-up to the movement, following the opening of negotiations on Thursday and a meeting deemed “constructive” by the president of the SETE , Jean-François Martins.
The employees of the most famous tourist site in Paris criticize their employer for its financial management and accuse the municipality of asking for too high a fee which would restrict the room for maneuver in the works budget and, ultimately, recruitment and remuneration. This movement has deprived the thousands of tourists, mostly foreigners, who flock there every day, of visits since Monday.
On Thursday, the SETE proposed “the creation of a permanent monitoring body” of the financial trajectory “in order to strengthen dialogue with the City” of Paris. Above all, “an agreement will be signed within fifteen days” regarding the “conditions of employment and remuneration” of employees, affirmed the SETE. However, the employees had not made any salary demands, saying they were fighting against the “untenable” economic model imposed by the Town Hall.
This conflict, which had already led to the closure of the monument on December 27, the hundredth anniversary of the disappearance of its architect, Gustave Eiffel, occurs in the middle of the winter school holidays and five months before the Olympic Games. If it were to continue beyond Sunday afternoon, this strike would be the longest in the recent history of the tower. In the fall of 1998, the “Iron Lady” remained closed for six and a half days.
The economic balance of the Eiffel Tower, which in 2023 returned to higher attendance than it was before the Covid-19 pandemic, with 6.3 million visitors, was weakened by some 130 million euros loss of earnings during the two years of the health crisis (2020 and 2021).
