Eiffel Tower Reopens After 5-Day Strike Ends

Eiffel Tower workers ended a five-day strike Friday, failing to achieve their main demand after disappointing thousands of tourists trying to visit Paris’ No. 1 attraction.

Tower workers started the strike over new parking facilities they said were too far away but later also asked for a 35-hour workweek and air-conditioned elevators.

“The whole place is shut down over a parking spot? This was the highlight of our trip, and it’s a real big disappointment,” said Tim Newman, who was on a two-day visit with five friends from St. Louis University in Missouri.

Unions representing the tower’s 180 workers agreed to use temporary parking spaces provided near a military school several hundred yards from the tower. But the workers had refused, saying the spaces were too far away and dangerous to walk to at night. Night workers had parked in a nearby ally, but that practice was banned, prompting the strike. A permanent garage is being built.

The 1,053-foot tower, which in clear weather gives majestic views of most of the city, reopened Friday evening, but it was too late for many visitors. Scores of tourists had mingled under the tower during the day.