For the fourth day in a row, the Eiffel Tower will remain closed on Thursday 22 February due to a strike by employees of SETE (Société d'exploitation de la tour Eiffel), who are critical of its financial management, the CGT and FO, the two unions representing the staff, told Agence France-Presse (AFP). A meeting is scheduled for 1pm between the unions and SETE management, the CGT and FO said on the spot.

Ednews informs citing Le Monde.

Around a hundred employees gathered at the monument's main entrance on Thursday morning to voice their opposition to, among other things, the fee, which they believe is too high, that SETE will have to pay to Paris City Council, the monument's owner, in the amendment to the public service delegation contract that is due to be presented to the Paris City Council for a vote in May. This amendment provides for a 20% increase in ticket prices.\

The employees, wearing the colours of the CGT and FO unions, chanted the following slogans: "Eiffel Tower in danger, fees too high"; "City management, Eiffel Tower in peril"; and "The City Council is gorging itself, sorry Gustave [Eiffel]". This dispute, which had already led to the closure of the Iron Lady on 27 December, the centenary of Gustave Eiffel's death, comes in the middle of the winter school holidays and five months before the Olympic Games (26 July-11 August).