IOC watches Paris grind to halt - London coud now be hot favourite to beat Paris in the race to win the bid for the 2012 Olympics
Public sector strikes deal blow to French Olympic hopes
Paul Kelso and Jon Henley in Paris
Friday March 11, 2005
The Guardian
Olympic inspectors visiting Paris were among a lucky minority able to move freely around the French capital yesterday as public sector workers brought the country grinding to a halt, severely disrupting buses, trains and flights, shutting schools and leaving papers undelivered and radio stations silent.
As the International Olympic Committee's evaluation commission continued its inspection of Paris's bid to host the 2012 games, union organisers said one in two teachers was on strike, and less than half of all high-speed and regional trains were running. Parisians had to get by with one metro in four - some lines were closed completely - and fewer than 20% of vital suburban RER trains.
Fifty-five cities suffered varying degrees of transport misery. The Riviera capital of Nice saw its entire bus service taken out, while action by air traffic controllers meant 75% of domestic and international flights were cancelled at Paris's Orly airport and 25% at Roissy Charles de Gaulle.
The news on France Inter, France's equivalent of BBC Radio 4, was replaced by music; ferry services between Calais and Dover were disrupted; and some 25% of the country's postmen failed to show up for work.
In Paris, commuters walked, cycled or rollerbladed to work, or stood jammed shoulder-to-shoulder in the few metro trains that were running. Most seemed prepared to grin and bear the inconvenience: polls showed the campaign, in protest at low salaries, welfare cutbacks and plans to reform the 35-hour working week, had the backing of more than 60% of the population.
While they were eager to play down its significance for the visting IOC inspectors, the national day of action in perennially strike-prone France was a major embarrassment to Paris bid officials.
On Wednesday the evaluation commission questioned the bid team closely on the nature of industrial relations in France, and the arrangements that have been made to prevent strikes derailing a potential Olympic games.
Union organisers insisted they were not out to wreck the bid. Many demonstrators wore Paris 2012 badges and T-shirts distributed by the seven public sector unions. The leaders of the two main trade union federations in France, the CFDT and CGT, also wrote open letters yesterday pledging an "industrial action ceasefire" if the games did come to Paris. "We are 100% behind this bid and, if Paris does have the chance to host the games, we will work for the coming seven years with all concerned ... towards a guarantee of non-disruption," wrote Francois Chereque, president of the CFDT.
The day of action did not directly affect the evaluation commission's work yesterday, but it could not have been worse timed, coinciding with a series of venue visits by the IOC team. As they were whisked around the city in coaches escorted by police outriders followed by coachloads of media, the convoy drew envious glances from drivers further inconvenienced by their guests.
"We would obviously have preferred a better advertisement for the candidacy," the sports minister, Jean-Francois Lamour, admitted to Le Figaro. Bertrand Delanoe, the Paris mayor, said the protests should be seen as proof that "democratic demonstration and efficient organisation are not incompatible".
Evaluation commission visits are prone to throw up awkward moments for bidding cities. London had to deal with controversy surrounding Ken Livingstone's Nazi jibe at a journalist, and New York endured doubts over its stadium that emerged as the commission landed.
The inspectors visited the 17th arrondissement in north-west Paris, where a disused railway yard has been earmarked for development into an Olympic Village for 17,100 athletes and coaches.
They spent an hour at the proposed site, before touring the Stade de France, which hosted the World Cup final in 1998 and would become the main stadium at a 2012 games.
www.guardian.co.uk . . .
Public sector strikes deal blow to French Olympic hopes
Paul Kelso and Jon Henley in Paris
Friday March 11, 2005
The Guardian
Olympic inspectors visiting Paris were among a lucky minority able to move freely around the French capital yesterday as public sector workers brought the country grinding to a halt, severely disrupting buses, trains and flights, shutting schools and leaving papers undelivered and radio stations silent.
As the International Olympic Committee's evaluation commission continued its inspection of Paris's bid to host the 2012 games, union organisers said one in two teachers was on strike, and less than half of all high-speed and regional trains were running. Parisians had to get by with one metro in four - some lines were closed completely - and fewer than 20% of vital suburban RER trains.
Fifty-five cities suffered varying degrees of transport misery. The Riviera capital of Nice saw its entire bus service taken out, while action by air traffic controllers meant 75% of domestic and international flights were cancelled at Paris's Orly airport and 25% at Roissy Charles de Gaulle.
The news on France Inter, France's equivalent of BBC Radio 4, was replaced by music; ferry services between Calais and Dover were disrupted; and some 25% of the country's postmen failed to show up for work.
In Paris, commuters walked, cycled or rollerbladed to work, or stood jammed shoulder-to-shoulder in the few metro trains that were running. Most seemed prepared to grin and bear the inconvenience: polls showed the campaign, in protest at low salaries, welfare cutbacks and plans to reform the 35-hour working week, had the backing of more than 60% of the population.
While they were eager to play down its significance for the visting IOC inspectors, the national day of action in perennially strike-prone France was a major embarrassment to Paris bid officials.
On Wednesday the evaluation commission questioned the bid team closely on the nature of industrial relations in France, and the arrangements that have been made to prevent strikes derailing a potential Olympic games.
Union organisers insisted they were not out to wreck the bid. Many demonstrators wore Paris 2012 badges and T-shirts distributed by the seven public sector unions. The leaders of the two main trade union federations in France, the CFDT and CGT, also wrote open letters yesterday pledging an "industrial action ceasefire" if the games did come to Paris. "We are 100% behind this bid and, if Paris does have the chance to host the games, we will work for the coming seven years with all concerned ... towards a guarantee of non-disruption," wrote Francois Chereque, president of the CFDT.
The day of action did not directly affect the evaluation commission's work yesterday, but it could not have been worse timed, coinciding with a series of venue visits by the IOC team. As they were whisked around the city in coaches escorted by police outriders followed by coachloads of media, the convoy drew envious glances from drivers further inconvenienced by their guests.
"We would obviously have preferred a better advertisement for the candidacy," the sports minister, Jean-Francois Lamour, admitted to Le Figaro. Bertrand Delanoe, the Paris mayor, said the protests should be seen as proof that "democratic demonstration and efficient organisation are not incompatible".
Evaluation commission visits are prone to throw up awkward moments for bidding cities. London had to deal with controversy surrounding Ken Livingstone's Nazi jibe at a journalist, and New York endured doubts over its stadium that emerged as the commission landed.
The inspectors visited the 17th arrondissement in north-west Paris, where a disused railway yard has been earmarked for development into an Olympic Village for 17,100 athletes and coaches.
They spent an hour at the proposed site, before touring the Stade de France, which hosted the World Cup final in 1998 and would become the main stadium at a 2012 games.
www.guardian.co.uk . . .