For the past 5 days, the Eiffel Tower workers have been on strike against the catastrophic management of the city of Paris. Just months before the Olympic Games, this highly publicized mobilization puts the question of budget cuts and the widespread deterioration of working conditions back at the center of debates.
On Monday, February 19th, the employees of SETE (Eiffel Tower Operating Company) went on strike to denounce the poor financial management of the site by the city of Paris, which owns 99% of the company. The employees are protesting the accelerated deterioration of the monument, as well as the seven-fold increase in the fee that SETE must pay to the city. According to the unions, this management will “limit the budget available to carry out the necessary work for the maintenance and operation of the tower and its site, while ultimately threatening recruitment and salaries.”
The strikers are currently on their fifth day of strike and have voted to extend it until at least Saturday. Around a hundred strikers and supporters gathered at the base of the tower on Friday. Sophie Binet, the general secretary of CGT, was present, signaling the magnitude of the conflict.
Meanwhile, the city of Paris continues to claim that the monument is in “very good condition” and is working to defuse the strike, as evidenced by the statements of Emmanuel Grégoire, the first deputy mayor of Paris. “There will probably still be a need for a few more hours, maybe even a few more days, but negotiations have progressed well this Thursday,” he assured on France Info. “We will give them until Friday to discuss and decide.”
The ongoing strike at one of Paris’s most touristy monuments highlights the sharpening contradictions between growing anger over degraded working conditions and increasingly austere policies. The workers’ mobilization is not just about wages and working conditions but also about the broader struggle against austerity measures.
The situation is explosive just months before the Olympic Games, as conflicts over wages and working conditions multiply. The need for a broad workers’ front to achieve real victories in terms of salaries and working conditions is becoming increasingly evident.
