Entertainers’ union plans strike for Olympics opening ceremony

A French performing artists union announced plans for a strike coinciding with the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games in Paris, protesting “outrageous disparities in treatment” between performers recruited for the spectacle.

“We regret to have to announce filing a strike notice for the show on July 26 as well as for the upcoming rehearsals for the opening ceremony for the Paralympic Games” on August 28, the union said in a statement.

It said it had “alerted” Paname24, the executive producer of the ceremonies, several times about contractual practices not in accordance with the collective agreement.

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“We also highlighted outrageous disparities in treatment as well as an absence of social dialogue during preparations for the ceremonies,” the union added.

Asked by AFP, a member of the SFA-CGT union suggested that around “250 to 300 professional dancers” of the 3,000 signed up for the Olympics “were recruited under shameful (financial) conditions”.

“Why are some non-Parisian artists being paid and housed, when the majority of them — the most precarious — won’t be, even though they have the same employment contracts,” the union said.

Some 3,000 dancers, musicians and actors will take to the banks of the river Seine and its bridges as part of the ceremony which will carry athletes along a six-kilometre (four mile) route, the first time a summer Games has begun outside the main stadium.