Dancers, musicians, lighting designers: since December 5, part of the employees of the Opera have been on a historic strike, the longest that the house has known… which has seen others! "We are more mobilized than ever," says Fabien Wallerand, tuba musician of the National Orchestra of the Paris Opera. We are fully aware that the public is impacted and that makes us sad. 78 shows were canceled, including two ballets this Thursday, during the ninth day of mobilization against the pension reform.
Also impacted, the budget of the Paris Opera. Wednesday on France Info, Stéphane Lissner, its director, posted the cost of the strike: 16.5 million euros (12.5 for 2019 with an intense strike month and 4 since the start of 2020) on 220 million euros annual budget. In addition to having launched a drastic savings plan affecting all services, he plans to eliminate three new productions in 2021.
"It almost gives me a balm," reacts the striker Pascal Benezra, first team leader of the machinery. We are fighting against a programming made in spite of common sense with increasingly huge productions and a calendar that we keep up as best we can. "
"It leaves us young people already badly damaged"
The 1,800 people who work at the Paris Opera benefit from a special scheme, like the railway workers. Among their advantages: the pension is calculated over the last six months for the machinists, the best three years for the artists. And most of the retirements range from 42 years for the dancers to 60 years for the musicians of the orchestra.
Using social media groups, email and text messages, strikers stick together, even between different occupations in the home. "I have been at the Paris Opera for fifteen years, testifies Fabien Wallerand, and I have never seen that. Machinists, electricians, props ... Convergence has been created. The strikers are fighting for "the young people" who have just entered or will enter the house. Pascal Benezra, 54, testifies to the intense work of his team of machinists who carry 80 kg decor elements. He personally experienced several falls of tens of meters high.
"This leaves us with young people who are already badly damaged without any reclassification policy," explains the team leader. Me, I will leave at 57 years old but, with the reform the young people will leave at 62 years old. Whereas, according to our calculations, the life expectancy of a machinist is on average 67 years. "Listening to the strikers," the fatigue "of the strike and" the fears "about the reform" feed the soil of people determined to go further to defend French culture ".