Eiffel Tower reopens after workers’ strike

Visitors can return to the Eiffel Tower following a six-day strike. Monday’s strike was a protest against Société d’Exploitation de la Tour Eiffel’s management. The walkout, the second in three months, interrupted 100,000 admissions. SETE apologized and promised ticket reimbursements. SETE’s business strategy, according to the workers’ union, inflates visitor counts and underestimates maintenance expenses. The union worried about the monument’s deterioration, saying it hadn’t been repainted in 14 years to double the average time. After SETE’s proposal was rejected, the five-day strike was extended to Saturday. The unions and SETE finalized a semi-annual meeting and business model monitoring agreement on Saturday. SETE will spend €380 million (£325 million) on improvements and maintenance until 2031 to balance its books by 2025. According to French Culture Minister Rachida Dati, the Eiffel Tower might be funded as a “historical monument”. On December 27, a protest commemorating Gustave Eiffel’s centenary blocked the Eiffel Tower. The civil engineer Eiffel created the tower to demonstrate France’s economic might during the 1889 Paris Exposition. It was the world’s tallest structure and a Parisian classic built in two years.