Sports

Olympics’ Dancers Threaten to Strike Over ‘Unfair Treatment’

DANCING WITH DISASTER

Performers for the Paris Olympics are threatening to hold up the event’s ceremony over “unfair treatment.”

Members of the French CGT labor union hold red flares.
Sarah Meyssonnier/Reuters

Performers represented by the French union, SFA-CGT, and management failed to reach a strike-ending agreement on Tuesday, meaning the Paris Olympics’ opening ceremonies could be in jeopardy, according to Agence France-Presse. According to the union, 10 percent of the 3,000 performers who were set to take part in the opening ceremony, filed a strike notice last week, citing “outrageous [pay] disparities.” Pay rates range from $64 to $1800, according to the Daily Mail. “This Tuesday, a timid proposal was finally made to us, related to an increase in pay for broadcasting rights,” the union told AFP in a statement. Dancers stopped rehearsal on Tuesday in protest of the proposal, holding their fists in the air along the Seine. Workers at airports within 150 km of Paris vowed to shut down flights from 6:30 p.m. to midnight on Friday as well, demanding a $1,085 bonus, according to AFP.

Read it at Jean Marc Morandini