The Eiffel Tower closed to the public on Wednesday due to a strike by its workers, according to an announcement by the Eiffel Tower management company (SETE) on the monument’s website.
The tower’s employees called this single-day strike to coincide with the 100th anniversary of the death of engineer Gustave Eiffel. They aim to highlight concerns about current management practices, which they claim are leading SETE towards failure, according to a statement by the CGT union.
The union critiques the overly ambitious and unsustainable economic model that underestimates the monument’s maintenance budgets. It also says that the revenue expected from an annual target of 7.4 million visitors each year is too high, given that this number has never previously been attained.
In 2022, the Eiffel Tower saw almost 5.9 million visitors, according to operating company records, a post-2019 and COVID-19 pandemic high.
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The union warns about a significant increase in the cost of maintenance and restoration works, which it claims are uncontrollably rising and putting a strain on SETE’s financial balances. It estimates the cost of necessary works to be €352m, an increase of €128m since 2019.
Only the free Eiffel Tower esplanade is open for access. A show, performed by Michael Canitrot, is scheduled for Wednesday evening at 21:00 to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Gustave Eiffel’s death.
