A union defending performing artists (SFA-CGT) has filed a strike notice for July 26, the day of the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympic Games, to protest against “glaring inequalities in treatment” between artists recruited for the show.
“We regret having to announce the filing of a strike notice for the show on July 26 as well as for the upcoming rehearsals of the opening ceremonies of the Paralympic Games” on August 28, announced in a press release the union (representative and majority in the sector), which depends on the CGT-Spectacle. The union says it has “alerted”, on several occasions, “Paname24, the executive producer of the ceremonies, of contractual practices not in accordance with the collective agreement” (of artistic and cultural companies, editor’s note).
Dancers “recruited under shameful conditions”
Asked by AFP, a member of the SFA indicated that he estimated that around “250 to 300 intermittent dancers in the show”, out of some 3,000 recruits for the Olympic and Paralympic Games (OPG), “were recruited under shameful conditions, without compensation, or without knowing the amount of the transfer of related rights”.
The union is questioning the differences in remuneration of these artists, from “60 euros for intermittent workers in the entertainment industry, previously excluded from collective bargaining, to 1,610 euros for employees who have benefited from successful collective bargaining”. “Why are some non-Parisian artists and will be reimbursed and housed, when the majority of them – the most precarious – will not be, even though they have the same employment contracts?” he continues.
According to him, after a referral to the Olympic Social Charter committee, two negotiation meetings were held with Paris 2024 and Paname24 at the beginning of July, without any progress. Paris 2024, questioned by AFP, responded that it takes “the subject of working conditions for people working for the Games very seriously”.
“Our service provider Paname 24 strictly complied with the law”
“After verification, we were able to note that our service provider Paname 24 strictly complied with the law, by applying the collective agreements applicable to the profession of dancer,” explained a spokesperson for the Olympic organizers to AFP, claiming “a fee higher than the agreed minimum.”
“We only discovered these provisions once the artists – mainly dancers – showed us their employment contracts and we discovered that some clauses were not normal,” former CGT leader Bernard Thibault, president of the Paris 2024 Social Charter Committee, told AFP. He said he “raised the alarm about this situation on June 10.”
“These are professionals who are known to be in precarious situations.” “We tell them that it is a real professional opportunity, but that doesn’t mean that the work done should not be recognized. “Some will lose money working for the opening ceremony,” he said.
On July 26, starting at 7:30 p.m., some 3,000 dancers, musicians and actors will take over the banks of the Seine and its bridges on a six-kilometer route from the Pont d’Austerlitz to the Eiffel Tower, for an XXL ceremony that is taking place for the first time outside of a stadium.
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