2023-12-27 21:04:49
By Le Figaro with AFP
Published 9 hours ago, Updated 39 minutes ago
A strike action by “a category of staff” makes it impossible to welcome visitors on the floors of the Parisian monument. CHRISTOPHE ENA / AFP
The strikers believe that the management company is leading the monument “into the wall”, with “unrealistic” attendance targets and “underestimated” restoration costs.
The company managing the Eiffel Tower announced on Wednesday that the monument remained closed to the public on Wednesday. In question, a strike movement “of a category of staff» which makes it impossible to welcome visitors on the floors. “Access to the square remains open and free», Specifies the operating company of the Eiffel Tower (SETE) on its site, asking tourists with an electronic reservation to consult their email for further information.
A “drift” in maintenance costs
Also read: Five things to (re)discover about Gustave Eiffel, who died just 100 years ago
The tower’s employees decided on this one-day strike, on the day of the 100th anniversary of the death of its engineer Gustave Eiffel, to denounce “the current management which leads SETE straight into the wall», For its part, the CGT specified in a press release. The union organization denounces in particular a “model” economic “too ambitious and untenable” because of a “undervaluation of works budgets» of the monument but also of a “overestimation of revenues based on annual attendance targets of 7.4 million visitors“, either “attendance levels never before reached“. In 2022, the Eiffel Tower welcomed nearly 5.9 million visitors, according to figures from the operating company, a record since 2019 and the Covid-19 pandemic.
The union warns in particular of the significant increase in the amount of maintenance and restoration work on the monument which “drifts in an uncontrolled and unbearable manner for the financial balance of SETE», estimating the cost of the work to be carried out at 352 million euros, i.e. “an increase of 128 million euros since 2019».
Built in 1889 for the Paris Universal Exhibition, the Eiffel Tower quickly became a symbol of France and its capital.
#strike #paralyzes #Eiffel #Tower #100th #anniversary #death #creator