End of the strike at the Paris Opera, performances have resumed – Libération

Rigoletto's revenge will take shape on the stage of the Paris Opera. The strike of employees of the Paris Opera to protest against “chronic understaffing” ended Tuesday, December 24 following a memorandum of understanding signed with management, we learned from consistent sources. At the beginning of December, a strike by dancers, this time over remuneration for preparation time before shows deemed insufficient, led to the cancellation of several performances.

“The strike is lifted and the shows “Rigoletto” (Verdi /Claus Guth) and “Play” (Alexander Ekman), threatened by a strike notice running until the end of the year, will take place on Tuesday evening at the Opéra Bastille and the Opéra Garnier»said management. “The strike notice which ran until December 31 was lifted following this memorandum of understanding and a vote of employees in general meetings in the two theaters», Confirmed Régis Cochennec of the Sud Spectacle union.

Started last Thursday by employees to denounce a “chronic understaffing” within the institution, the strike ended on Tuesday “following negotiations which resulted in several advances”, said this union official. The strikers denounced services “bloodless» due to a policy of reducing the number of positions which “brings opera to its knees”according to Régis Cochennec.

They got “that 50 positions vacant since 2022 be filled by June 30, 2025 and a reduction to five positions of the gap between the employment ceiling of 1,484 positions, imposed on the Opera by Parliament and the sub-ceiling ” house” which only has 1,459 full-time equivalent jobs worked”he detailed. This gap was 25 positions until now.

According to Régis Cochennec, management is also committed to “reinforcement of seven fixed-term positions in the event of work overload and large productions”. According to this union representative, the employees and their representatives also obtained “a meeting on January 8 at the Ministry of Culture, the supervisory authority, from which they intend to request an increase in the employment ceiling.”