After five days without visitors, the Eiffel Tower is open again and its 300 staffers are back at work, just in time for the annual Christmas rush of visitors.
The strike was not over wages and benefits, but over “strategic decisions” in the operation of the tower, which is owned by the city of Paris, but operated for it by a semi-private company, SETE.
With major projects being planned, including stripping and re-painting, as well as replacement of some metal parts, the workers are concerned over staffing and other issues and blamed the company for what it called “unproductive dialogue… and its deliberate lack of transparency on strategic decisions.”
December usually sees about 6000 visitors a day, but the Christmas season usually pushes that up to around 20,000 daily.
