In France, summer is the season for strikes, and France’s trade union for performing artists, SFA-CGT, has filed a strike notice placing the 2024 Paris Olympics ceremony under threat.
“We regret to announce that we are calling a strike for the July 26 show, as well as for the upcoming rehearsals for the opening ceremonies of the Paralympic Games,” said the union in a July 17 press release.
With less than two weeks remaining before the opening ceremony, this announcement put Paris’s Olympics Games under pressure.
There have been “blatant inequalities of treatment” between artists recruited for the opening ceremony, says the union.
Around 300 dancers for the Olympic and Paralympic Games, “were recruited under shameful conditions, without reimbursement of expenses, and without knowing their copyright” rights, said a union member.
The union also denounced disparities between the dancers’ pay, which ranged from “€60 for intermittent workers in the entertainment sector to €1,610 for employees”.
Intermittent status, in France, is a special and precarious working status for people working in the entertainment industry.
The Paris 2024 organisers defend themselves by saying Paname 2024, the ceremonies’ executive producer, complied with the law and the collective agreements “applicable to the dance profession”.
The entertainment workers’ union hopes to apply pressure to the Paris Olympics organising committee by making threats of a strike immediately before the opening ceremony.
Last week, the union representing Paris airport operators also called for a strike, though that was was lifted on July 16 after the union obtained a bonus for its workers for the Olympic Games.
