The Eiffel Tower, considered to be the most well-known Parisian landmark and a testament to humanity's structural ingenuity, closed down last Wednesday, Dec. 27, due to a labor strike, as reported by France 24.
The incident coincidentally lined up with the centennial anniversary of the tower's designer and engineer, Gustave Eiffel, who built it for the 1889 Universal Exposition that took place in Paris.
Owing to its popularity, it's no surprise that the tower is often the designated backdrop of important events, and because the 2024 Summer Olympics' host has been decided to be France, the tower is expected to have an important role, with a projected 20,000 daily visitors, once the international event commences.
With mounting responsibilities due to the international sporting event, staff at the Eiffel Tower launched a strike ahead of contract negotiations with Paris' local government, which possesses ownership over the world-famed landmark.
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The Reason Behind the Recent Eiffel Tower Strike
According to The Guardian, leaders of the General Confederation of Labour, the second-largest union in the country, said that SETE, the managing company behind the Eiffel Tower's operations, plans to employ a business model that is "too ambitious and unsustainable."
The GCL grounds its argument on the "naively optimistic" projection of the landmark's would-be revenue during the Olympics, claiming that the company is "heading for disaster" as it underestimates the operational costs that come with the impending event's sheer magnitude.
In addition to that, the labor union also claims that SETE's basis for the budget was inadequately supported, as the company's primary basis is the tower's estimated visitor count per year of 7.4 million even though it has yet to reach that figure.
CGL said that even its pre-pandemic figures have peaked right under the 7 million mark, and since then, it has routinely failed to reach 6 million visitors.
That said, the landmark is set to open around Thursday, January 4, next week, The New York Times reports.
