Paris: the Eiffel Tower closed again this Tuesday due to a strike

Europe 1 with AFP 11:08 a.m., February 20, 2024

The Eiffel Tower will remain closed again this Tuesday, for the second day in a row, due to a strike launched by the two unions representing staff who denounce the management of the site, a representative of the CGT confirmed to AFP. The Paris town hall, main shareholder of the Eiffel Tower Operating Company (Sete), "refuses to negotiate for the moment", affirmed Alexandre Leborgne ahead of the general assembly which must ratify the renewal of the movement.

The unions criticize the town hall for “seeking profitability at all costs and in the short term”

In the middle of the winter school holidays and five months before the Olympic Games (July 26 - August 11), the CGT and FO want to force the town hall to change a model that they consider "untenable" for Sete.

The two unions, which had already launched a strike leading to the closure of the Dame de Fer on December 27, the hundredth anniversary of the disappearance of Gustave Eiffel, criticize the town hall for "seeking profitability at all costs and in the short term" . They ask him to be “reasonable in terms of his financial requirements in order to ensure the sustainability of the monument and the company that manages it”.

The amount of the fee that Sete pays to the town hall, the price of admissions and the budget for the works, three essential financial parameters, are being reviewed with an amendment to the public service delegation contract which runs until 2030. The amendment must be validated by the Paris Council by the summer. The option envisaged is to increase prices by 20%, but interpretations differ as to the fee and the budget for the work.

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 cope, Sete was recapitalized to the tune of 60 million euros in 2021. But to the loss of revenue was added an equivalent additional bill - around 130 million euros - for additional costs of renovation work, mainly linked to the current painting campaign, complicated by the discovery of traces of lead.

Unions demand the creation of a “special endowment fund”

Despite the sums invested, "numerous points of corrosion are visible, symptoms of a worrying degradation 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."

The unions, who are demanding the creation of a “special endowment fund” for future work, also accuse Sete and the town hall of postponing the modernization of the elevators and the flickering device. The closure arouses the frustration of thousands of visitors, mainly foreigners (around 80% according to 2023 statistics).