This Wednesday marks the third day of the strike movement by employees of the Eiffel Tower and the iron curtain at the entrance to the monument will remain lowered again this Wednesday, to the great dismay of tourists who come to spend their vacations in the capital.
Since Monday the CGT and FO unions, representatives of employees of Sete (operating company of the Eiffel Tower), have denounced the poor financial management of the site by the Paris town hall, the majority shareholder.
They thus accuse the town hall of “emptying the coffers” of the company operating the site without taking into account the renovation needs, and of “refusing to negotiate”.
Indeed, no agreement is envisaged for the moment and as the CGT union delegate, Stéphane Dieu, predicted on Tuesday: there was "no chance that it would be unblocked overnight" from Tuesday to Wednesday, specifying that employees would vote again “every morning depending on the progress of the negotiations”.
According to the union organizations, the city of Paris “even refuses to receive [them].
The tower probably closed until Thursday
The standoff between the two unions and the municipality concerns the economic model of Sete, currently being rewritten with an amendment to the public service delegation contract which runs until 2030. The amendment must be validated in May to the Paris Council.
But “if the owner (the town hall) imposes an untenable model, we will show our disapproval in July” during the Olympics, insisted Stéphane Dieu.
VIDEO.
The Eiffel Tower on strike: “We’re going to take a photo and go home!”
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As last December, they criticize the town hall for "an overly ambitious (economic) model", due to an "overestimation of revenues based on annual attendance targets of 7.4 million visitors".
The economic balance of the Eiffel Tower, which in 2023 returned to higher attendance than it was before Covid-19, with 6.3 million visitors, was weakened by some 120 million euros in shortfalls. win during the two years of health crisis (2020 and 2021).
To this was added an additional bill of around 130 million euros in additional costs of renovation work, mainly linked to the current painting campaign, complicated by the discovery of traces of lead.
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The CGT also points out the increase in the fee collected by the municipality, which will increase from 16 million euros per year to 50 million per year, despite a context which is not suitable for this according to the unions.
Management claims for its part that the amendment lowers the royalty compared to the initial contract.
As for the work carried out, "numerous points of corrosion are visible, symptoms of a worrying deterioration of the 135-year-old monument", the unions worry, deploring the "100 million euros invested for a partial painting campaign with only 3% of the monument stripped.”
According to the unions, the Eiffel Tower will probably remain inaccessible until Thursday.