“The town hall is stuffing itself, sorry Gustave” : the spirit of the signs that we can read for almost a week at the foot of the iron lady has not changed. Friday February 23, employees of the Eiffel Tower Operating Company (SETE) were on strike for a fifth consecutive day. Despite the opening of negotiations with management the day before, those present at the morning general assembly voted unanimously to continue the movement.
Since Monday, the CGT-FO inter-union has been warning about the company’s economic model, which it considers insufficient to ensure the long-term maintenance of the monument, between painting campaign, renovation of the elevators and replacement of the flickering mechanism of the round. This is mainly due, according to them, to the increase in the fee paid each year by this local public company to its majority shareholder (99%), the City of Paris, which must amount to 50 million euros per year. next year.
Even if this information was public since the signing in 2016 of the public service delegation (DSP) which links the company and the community, it was following the announcement of the signing of an amendment to this contract that the unions expressed their dissatisfaction.
Complications
This amendment must be signed because SETE is in financial difficulty. As it stands, it cannot meet the objectives set out at the time (1.9 billion euros in turnover over the period 2017-2030) without being in deficit, for two reasons: the company has lost 130 million euros in revenue during the closures linked to the Covid-19 epidemic, and the renovation work encountered complications, which resulted in the loss of a further 120 million.
“We decided to extend the duration of the DSP by one year to smooth out investments and their depreciation. Concerning the maintenance of the tower, we increase the amount of our investment plan by 145 million euros until the end of the periodexplains to World Jean-François Martins, president of SETE and advisor to Paris. In addition to management efforts, there are two levers for this: the 20% increase in the price of the ticket, which will bring in 145 million euros by 2031, and a modification of the method of calculating the fee, which corresponds to an effort of 51 million from Paris City Hall. So this fee is not increasing, precisely. »
The management of the tower once again explained to the unions on Thursday this roadmap negotiated with the municipality, without touching the amounts announced to the unions for a month. The SETE argues that the Town Hall will therefore affect “between 31 and 34 million euros” annual admissions to the tower. But this is an average over the period 2017-2031, retorts Denis Vavassori, CGT union delegate, who insists: “They are not touching the 50 million euros planned for next year. »
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