Launched on December 19, the strike movement by employees of the Paris Opera ended on Tuesday, December 24. A memorandum of understanding was signed with management and the shows planned for this week will take place.
The strike by employees of the Paris Opera to protest against “chronic understaffing” ended on Tuesday, December 24 following a memorandum of understanding signed with management, we learned from reliable sources.
“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 at the Opéra Garnier,” management told AFP.
“The strike notice which ran until December 31 was lifted following this memorandum of understanding and a vote by employees in general assemblies in the two theaters,” confirmed Régis Cochennec of the Sud Spectacle union.
“Several advances” obtained according to Sud Spectacle
Started last Thursday by employees to denounce “chronic understaffing” within the institution, the strike ended Tuesday “following negotiations which resulted in several advances”, said this union official.
The strikers denounced “bloodless” services due to a policy of reducing the number of positions which “brings the opera to its knees”, according to Mr. Cochennec.
They obtained “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 – “house” ceiling, which only has 1,459 full-time equivalent jobs worked,” he detailed. This gap was 25 positions until now.
According to Mr. Cochennec, management has also committed to a “reinforcement of seven fixed-term positions in the event of work overload and large productions”.
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”, according to this union representative.
