The Eiffel Tower, closed for five days due to a staff strike, will reopen on Sunday, the company operating the Parisian monument announced on Saturday February 24, after the conclusion of an agreement with the unions.
“The management of the Eiffel Tower Operating Company (Sete) and the trade union organizations have reached an agreement to end the strike providing that the parties will regularly review the economic model, the evolution of investments of work and revenue of the company through a body which will meet every six months”specifies Sete in a press release sent to Agence France-Presse.
“This body will allow the monitoring of the amendment to the public service delegation contract, as proposed in January”with notably “the return to financial balance of the company from 2025”she adds.
Management and unions also agreed on “an ambitious investment of 380 million euros until 2031, particularly for work and maintenance of the tower’s heritage”, according to the management press release. The agreement further provides “the continuation of the twentieth painting campaign and the start of the next”a key point in the delicate question of the maintenance of the monument inaugurated one hundred and thirty-five years ago.
“We will remain mobilized”
“La Sete would like to renew its apologies to all visitors who have found its doors closed since February 19 and is delighted to be able to welcome the public again”continues the management, assuring that those who were unable to visit the monument would be “automatically and fully reimbursed as soon as possible”.
The reopening will only take place on Sunday morning “in order to give the technical team time” to ensure that the elevators are properly restarted for a safe reception, specify the CGT and FO, in a joint press release. “We will remain mobilized to defend the monument until a viable model is obtained”they add.
If it had lasted beyond Sunday afternoon, this strike would have been the longest in the recent history of the tower. In the fall of 1998, the monument remained inaccessible for six and a half days. The ongoing conflict had already led to its closure on December 27, the hundredth anniversary of the disappearance of Gustave Eiffel.
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 130 million euros in shortfalls. win during the two years of health crisis, in 2020 and 2021.