Tourists passing through Paris will have to be patient… The Eiffel Tower is closed from this Monday, February 19, due to a renewable strike, the two trade union organizations representing the staff, who denounce the financial management of the site.
The CGT and FO ask the Paris town hall, majority shareholder of Société d’exploitation de la Tour Eiffel (Sete), to be “reasonable in terms of its financial requirements in order to ensure the sustainability of the monument and the company who manages it.
An economic model that is “too ambitious and untenable”
Access to the Iron Lady is closed for the day, reception staff confirmed to AFP on site. The unions, which had already initiated a strike at the end of December, on the day of the 100th anniversary of the death of Gustave Eiffel, denounce an economic model that is “too ambitious and untenable” with an “undervaluation of works budgets”, coupled with an “over -revenue evaluation”.
According to the CGT and FO, this model “became unsustainable following the Covid period which cut 120 million in ticket revenue from the monument”.
The unions question the management on the state of the monument despite the restoration work in progress: “numerous points of corrosion are visible, symptoms of a worrying deterioration of the monument”, and this while “the last painting campaign, a guarantee responsible for the conservation of the monument, saw its production costs soar” with “100 million euros invested for a partial painting campaign with only 3% of the monument stripped”.
They call for the creation of a “special endowment fund in anticipation of the colossal expenses that will be necessary in the decades to come”.