Source: THE AS­SO­CI­AT­ED PRESS

Work­ers went on strike Thurs­day at the five-star ho­tel in Paris where mem­bers of the In­ter­na­tion­al Olympic Com­mit­tee are stay­ing, walk­ing out just a day be­fore the open­ing cer­e­mo­ny of the Games.

Ac­cord­ing to the ma­jor French union CGT, the IOC paid the ho­tel where staffers were strik­ing, Hô­tel du Col­lec­tion­neur, 22 mil­lion eu­ros ($23.88 mil­lion) for ex­clu­sive use of the fa­cil­i­ty.

The Paris di­vi­sion of the CGT post­ed a video on so­cial me­dia ap­pear­ing to be from in­side the ho­tel, show­ing around a dozen staff lin­ing a cor­ri­dor. Em­ploy­ees held signs read­ing, “No 13th month, no Olympics!”, “Lux­u­ry ho­tel, pover­ty wages” and “Give us back our so­cial ben­e­fits”. Many com­pa­nies in France pay their work­ers a bonus in De­cem­ber known as the “13th month”.

The CGT said the em­ploy­ees were de­mand­ing a pay in­crease, hav­ing not re­ceived a raise for sev­en years. The strike comes af­ter a fifth round of ne­go­ti­a­tions failed Wednes­day.

A woman who an­swered the phone at Hô­tel du Col­lec­tion­neur said the busi­ness de­clined to com­ment.

Al­though a div­i­dend of over 9.5 mil­lion eu­ros ($10.3 mil­lion) was giv­en to share­hold­ers this year, the union says the ho­tel has made no at­tempt to im­prove the fi­nan­cial sit­u­a­tion of its staff.

In a sep­a­rate protest, around 200 per­form­ers stood along the Seine Riv­er on Mon­day and re­fused to take part in a re­hearsal for the open­ing cer­e­mo­ny be­ing held Fri­day, protest­ing work­ing con­di­tions and in­equal­i­ty in the treat­ment of en­ter­tain­ment work­ers at the Paris games.

The protests come as ten­sions run high fol­low­ing re­cent leg­isla­tive elec­tions, putting France on the brink of a gov­ern­ing paral­y­sis — which, in turn, has sparked fur­ther calls for strikes.

So­phie Bi­net, gen­er­al sec­re­tary of the CGT, called this month for mass demon­stra­tions and pos­si­ble strikes to pres­sure Pres­i­dent Em­manuel Macron in­to “re­spect­ing the re­sults” of the elec­tion and al­low a left-wing coali­tion to form a new gov­ern­ment.

Bi­net didn’t rule out strikes dur­ing the Olympics. Asked about strikes that could dis­rupt the biggest event France has ever or­ga­nized, she said, “At this stage, we don’t plan a strike dur­ing the Olympic Games. But if Em­manuel Macron con­tin­ues to throw gaso­line cans on the fires that he light­ed ...”

CGT has an open call for po­ten­tial strikes by pub­lic ser­vice work­ers from Ju­ly through Sep­tem­ber. —(AP)