The Eiffel Tower in Paris is closed to the public today due to a staff strike. The workers went on strike over the way the tower is managed, the French union CGT said.
The date of the strike was not chosen by chance on the day that marks the hundredth anniversary of the death of the tower’s creator, Gustave Eiffel.
“A symbolic action on a symbolic date,” said the CGT union in a statement, adding that staff members wanted to call out the current financial management of SETE.
They said they feared poor decisions could lead to a cash shortage, due in part to a lack of visitors during the COVID-19 pandemic, and to expensive repairs needed on the historical building.
The visionary French engineer and entrepreneur Eiffel died on this day in 1923 at the age of 91.
Completed in 1889, the so-called Iron Lady remains one of the world’s top tourist attractions, with 5.85 million visitors last year, 7 percent of whom came from the United Kingdom alone.
