Olympic Opening Ceremony dancers call off strike action
By Joseph Ataman, Emmanuel Miculita and Chris Liakos, CNN
(CNN) — Hundreds of dancers threatening to disrupt the Olympic Games’ Opening Ceremony over pay have called off strike action after reaching an agreement with Paris 2024, according to a statement from the union representing the dancers.
FSA-CGT union said on Wednesday that it received a “final offer” from Paris 2024 and their employers, proposing to increase payment for broadcasting performance rights for everyone.
On Monday, some 220 dancers stopped a rehearsal along the banks of Paris’ River Seine – along which the Opening Ceremony is due to take place – to protest inequalities in pay and housing conditions between the dancers.
A representative for the union previously told CNN that the ceremony was “in danger” after a protest and possible strike action by more than 200 dancers due to take part in Friday’s ceremony, a union representative for the dancers told CNN Tuesday.
“The ceremony is in danger in a sense, yes. But it will depend on solidarity because the strike is an individual decision,” Lucie Sorin, a delegate for the FSA-CGT union, previously told CNN.
She said that the dancers were negotiating with Paris 2024 and their employers to obtain higher salaries and a sum of money for the “most precarious” performers.
But the union said Wednesday added that “in agreement with the artists concerned,” it has decided “to accept this proposal and to lift the strike notice for the ceremony on Friday July 26.”
The union said that the outcome wasn’t a total victory but that it met certain demands, in particular those of the dancers most at risk.
This year’s Opening Ceremony will be the first ever held on a river.
Some 104,000 people in stands lining the River Seine will watch the event, with 220,000 more on raised roadways along a six-kilometer (nearly four miles) stretch of the river, according to French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin.
For years, French officials had boasted that some 600,000 people would attend the Opening Ceremony, but that number has been slashed due to safety concerns.
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