French arts festivals threatened by strikes

To many arts lovers, France wouldn’t be France without its summer festivals of theater, dance, music and other diversions.

But it wouldn’t be France without its strikes either.

For the last several months, striking workers have paralyzed public transport, administrative services and mail delivery in this country, and now culture is the target.

In recent days, some of France’s best-known summer arts festivals have been disrupted, suspended or simply canceled.

Thursday morning, about 300 workers at the annual theater festival in the Provencal city of Avignon -- due to begin next week but now in jeopardy -- were in the streets, dressed in black or sporting gags in their mouths.

The crisis began after three small unions representing workers in the arts sector signed a deal with the nation’s employers association reforming their unemployment benefits system.

The agreement -- not approved by the nation’s leading union, the Confederation Generale du Travail -- reduces the benefits period of these workers from a year to eight months and stipulates that, to be eligible, workers have to put in 507 hours over 10 months instead of 12.

The reform affects 135,000 people, from hairdressers to comedians, of whom 70% are classified as performers. Shortly after the deal was made public, many of them stopped doing their jobs, causing chaos in summer festival planning.

“We’re going to blow the whole thing out, and we wish good luck to the culture minister for his travels this summer,” said CGT leader Jean Voirin.

For some self-financed festivals or modest theater companies, the strike could spell demise.

“It is not a bad agreement,” said Bernard Faivre d’Arcier, director of the popular Avignon festival.

“It is suicidal to scuttle our own ship,” he added, “and that is what the art workers are doing now by interrupting the festivals.”

Even the 100th anniversary of the Tour de France cycling race might be affected if television crews (largely made up of arts workers) refuse to cover the competition.

In Marseille, the Festival of Contemporary Creation was scheduled to run between Wednesday and July 20 but was called off.

The same fate struck Montpellier’s dance festival, which started June 27 but which ended prematurely Sunday.

In Paris, the city’s main opera company has been giving daily briefings about its cancellations. The CGT has called for a general strike to begin Tuesday, when the Avignon festival is scheduled to open.

Besides the festivals, hotels, restaurants, shops and other businesses supported by tourism have also been affected. In Avignon, where the festival has been held for 57 years, the strike could represent a loss of about $9.2 million in ticket sales and about $46 million in other revenue for the city.

During festival season, attendees account for 70% of hotel and related business nationwide, according to Franck Gomez, leader of the hotel and restaurant owners federation in the southern region of Vaucluse.

Art workers’ representatives met Monday night and again Thursday afternoon with Jean-Jacques Aillagon, the minister of culture, to try working out an improved agreement, but nothing has been settled. Naturally, the government wants to solve the problem as fast as possible. Aillagon has said he regrets that the work of artists and the interests of the public have been taken hostage, but he justifies the government’s action by pointing to a need to eliminate unemployment benefits abuses.

France’s welfare system is at the heart of the crisis. The rules regarding arts workers were implemented to ensure them income between jobs -- and help ensure the country’s cultural preeminence. But overall last year, the unemployment insurance system recorded a loss of about $950 million.

In 2000, of the 135,000 art workers eligible for a year’s worth of benefits, 75,200 availed themselves of the opportunity. In other European countries, by contrast, arts workers are considered ordinary temporary employees and usually have to accept other jobs during periods of unemployment.