Olympic Opening Ceremony threatened by striking dancers
(CNN) — The Olympic Games’ Opening Ceremony is “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.
“Negotiations are underway,” said Lucie Sorin, a delegate for the FSA-CGT union, but there is still a strike notice in place for Friday, she added.
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.
“The ceremony is in danger in a sense, yes. But it will depend on solidarity because the strike is an individual decision,” Sorin said.
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.
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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