The Paris Olympics are The Strike Olympics — with an IOC hotel already disrupted

PARIS — International Olympic Committee honchos received a rude Parisian awakening Thursday at the Hotel du Collectionneur, their luxurious, privatized hub for the duration of the 2024 Games.

Workers at the five-star hotel went on strike and staged a two-hour protest, reportedly disrupting breakfast service and unsettling IOC officials, who are accustomed to unfettered opulence wherever they go.

Video posted by the Union Departmentale CGT, which represents the workers, showed a group of chefs, waiters and other staffers lining a hallway, chanting, waving flags and holding signs with messages such as: “Luxury hotel, poverty wages.”

The UD CGT said employees were demanding long-overdue salary increases that, in sum, would represent 1/20th of what the IOC paid — 22 million euros ($23.9 million) — to rent out the hotel.

All that money went “directly into the boss' pocket,” rather than to workers, the union said. “Are cooks, waiters, receptionists, technicians worthless?”

So, after another round of negotiations on Wednesday left employees unsatisfied, they did what French people do — and what they’ve done especially frequently leading into the Olympics.

“We can't wait for the workers of the world to discover our French way of striking,” the UD CGT wrote.

Labor action is indeed more common in France than anywhere else in Europe, and perhaps more common than anywhere else in the world, according to mostavailabledata. It is a cultural phenomenon, a legislative feature and a badge of pride all at once.

And if the world hasn’t yet discovered this feisty facet of the 2024 Olympic host country, it could very well learn over the coming weeks.

Strike threats have littered the months leading into the Games. Unions and their members in a variety of sectors have leveraged the Olympics to fight for bonuses and better wages. Their strike threats have consistently yielded wins, in part because French authorities are so intent on producing the Games sans glitches.

The latest “victory,” as the SFA-CGT union called it, came after hundreds of dancers set to perform at Friday’s glitzy Opening Ceremony threatened to strike. They called off the action, and said they’d play their roles, after securing an extra $200 or so per person.

But other threats remain, and more could arise.

There are rumblings that rideshare drivers and/or taxi drivers could strike Friday morning, form a slow-moving convoy in eastern Paris, and bring major roads in the capital to a standstill — in a bid for better pay.

A union representing airport workers has also twice announced the possibility of a strike as the Olympics begin.

And earlier in 2024, police spent two days protesting for Olympic-related bonuses worth more than $2,000.

Around that same time, Paris metro staff floated the possibility of a work stoppage to secure bonuses and wage hikes.

Later in the year, so did a union representing government staffers, medical personnel and social workers.

And so did train drivers.

So did garbage collectors.

They know, in many cases, that the Olympics can’t function smoothly without them. They also know they have a once-in-a-lifetime spotlight available to them during the Games. They know their employers surely have to appease them, to ensure the Games go on. And the IOC, which has already secured $7.3 billion in revenue from 2025-2028, doesn’t sound willing to intervene.

“This is not related to the Olympic Games or the stay of the IOC,” an IOC spokesperson wrote when asked about the Hotel du Collectionneur labor dispute. “We refer you to the hotel management with your question."

A representative for the Gate Collection, which manages the hotel, said via email: "Negotiations with the unions are underway, without affecting the operation of our hotel. Our teams remain mobilized and committed to ensuring that our services run smoothly."

The CGT, meanwhile, wrote on X that it “stands alongside all employees for the duration of the Olympic Games. Please feel free to contact us for any problems at work.”