Arts workers' strike threatens to disrupt Cannes festival

WITH celebrities jetting into Cannes for the start of the world-famous film festival this week, the French government was yesterday embroiled in last-minute negotiations to try to head off threats by striking arts workers to disrupt the event.

As the likes of Brad Pitt, Charlize Theron and Quentin Tarantino headed for the Riviera resort, arts workers furious at cuts in their unemployment benefit were threatening to bring the festival to a standstill with massive demonstrations.

The feud between the French government and showbusiness workers, who have been on strike since last summer, has already led to the cancellation of France’s world-renowned Avignon theatre festival last summer. Now the government has appealed to the protesters not to disrupt Cannes.

The government initially took a hard line with the arts workers but has latterly softened its approach, with culture minister Renaud Donnedieu de Vabres last week announcing the creation of a temporary 20 million fund for arts workers in financial difficulty as a result of changes in their unemployment benefit.

But union officials have rejected the plan as "provocation". Yesterday, the conservative prime minister, Jean-Pierre Raffarin, also intervened in the crisis, asking Unedic, the body which manages the unemployment benefit scheme, to resume negotiations with the government and unions on the future of the system.

Film festival managers said yesterday that there was no risk of Cannes being shut down because of action by the workers. Organisers said they were trying to work with the unions to give them a platform to express their views peacefully. Protesters confirmed they will not try to close the festival down but said they are planning to carry out protests to get their message into the public domain.

At the weekend about 100 protesters briefly blocked a shipment of movie reels headed for Cannes. Trains and coaches were waiting last night to take protesters to Cannes from Paris, Limoges, Nancy, Nantes, Rennes and Marseilles.

Until January, France’s 100,000 arts-industry employees qualified for year-round unemployment benefit if they worked for just three months in a year.

While the government considers the benefits too generous, workers argue that it is the employers who have abused the system and that reforms will impoverish culture in France. The protesters enjoy widespread support from many of the French film-makers whose films are being presented at the festival.