Paris Olympic Games: brutal exploitation and huge profits

The Paris Olympic Games will take place from July 26 to August 11, 2024. It will not be a “popular festival”, to celebrate “the love of sport” or to defend “world peace”, as we often hear it on television sets. These games are an attempt to restore the image of the French ruling class on the international scene and, above all, not to lose the opportunity to line the pockets of French employers.

Indeed, from the construction of the stadiums to the holding of the Games, the interests of the French ruling class have been carefully defended – to the detriment of athletes and workers.

Brutal exploitation

“ Higher, faster, stronger “. This motto, which over time has become that of the Olympic Games, is now imposed on each “organizing country” or, to be exact, on its workers. The employers exploited construction workers more quickly and more heavily so that the stadiums were ready in time for the competition.

In the name of “sporting values”, the COJOP will use 45,000 volunteers – who will therefore work for free. In security, where 25,000 positions are to be filled, salaries rarely exceed the minimum wage.

“You work two months, but they only pay you one”, a worker at the Olympic Village in Saint-Denis told BFM TV. To be on time, construction companies have harshly exploited an already very precarious workforce.

The Olympic construction sites employed more than 5,000 workers, the overwhelming majority of whom were immigrants. On the construction of the Olympic Village in Saint-Denis, for example, mainly West Africans worked, but also Turks, Portuguese and workers from North Africa.

The construction giants – Bouygues, Icade, Eiffage, Nexity, Legendre Immobilier, etc. – happily draw from the country’s 700,000 undocumented workers, who constitute a cheap and easily forced labor force. Without them, the Olympics could not see the light of day, as underlined by the slogan of collectives of undocumented immigrants: “ No papers, no Olympic Games ! “.

Member of the Coordination of Sans-papiers in Paris (CSP75), Mamadou Sow also denounces the scandalous conditions in which his comrades worked: “ Whether for the Olympic Games or elsewhere in France, when the bosses know that you do not have your papers, you are like a slave “.

No longer having to worry about the Labor Code, employers impose extremely harsh conditions on workers: little or no protective equipment, pay well below the minimum wage and working days often exceeding 10 hours – all without safety. social, without paid leave and without access to care.

This management was fatal to a significant number of workers. For example, the Société du Grand Paris, which is notably responsible for renovating Parisian public transport, has to date recorded 5 deaths and 30 serious injuries.

Solidéo: gold medal for hypocrisy

The systematic use of subcontracting allows the giants of the sector to increase this exploitation without having to directly assume the consequences.

Solidéo, the organizing institution for the 2024 Olympic Games, rejects any responsibility for the exploitation of undocumented immigrants. Better: it ensures that it achieves a “ systematic control » companies on construction sites in order to fight “ against illegal work “.

But then, how can we explain the notorious and massive ineffectiveness of these controls? There is ” always holes in the racket », Explains a Solidéo manager. To be sure that we understand the image correctly, he insists: certain companies go “ between the cracks “.

In reality, Solidéo operates as the construction sector usually operates: it uses subcontractors who directly exploit workers, and more particularly undocumented immigrants.

And during labor inspection checks, it is the workers without a legal contract who pay: they lose their jobs. Daouda Tounkara, for example, worked until October 18 on the Olympic construction sites, then found himself without work and without resources following an inspection.

Thus, Solidéo relies on subcontractors, as was the case in October 2023 when nine subcontracting companies for the Olympic projects were placed in compulsory liquidation.

But this does not solve any problem: new subcontractors appear to occupy the “market”. On the sidelines of the construction giants, there is a nebula of micro-enterprises whose specialty is the recruitment and exploitation of undocumented immigrants.

To use the metaphor of the director of Solidéo, “the meshes of the net” are precisely calibrated to allow as many fish as possible to pass through. It’s a whole hypocritical “system” in which the main players in the Olympics are complicit, starting with Solidéo, the State and the major construction groups.

Financing the Games: private profits, public spending

To afford a disproportionate event, the leaders of the Olympic Games relied on three essential sources of financing: public spending, including local authorities; revenues from viewers, who will have to support excessive advertising; and those of spectators who can afford to pay extremely expensive seats.

If the large construction companies have lined their pockets, the bill for the public authorities is always higher. As usual for this type of event, design offices announce inexpensive financing projects in order to present the construction projects. The forecast budget for the Olympic Games, at the time of the bid, was 3.3 billion euros.

Today, it is announced by the Organizing Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games (COJOP) at more than 7 billion euros and could ultimately rise to 8.8 billion euros. Where do these colossal sums come from which are so complicated to find when it comes to financing our pensions and our public services?

First of all, 2.4 billion euros came directly from state coffers. Construction employers are the primary beneficiaries: of the 3.3 billion euros dedicated to long-term infrastructure, two-thirds come from the State, the Île-de-France Region and Paris City Hall. Added to this are sponsorship revenues (1 billion euros), television rights (750 million) and ticketing (1.4 billion), which constitute the main revenues from these games.

For multinationals, a fantastic opportunity to redeem their image

To afford the Olympic Games in excess, the COJOP and the IOC – the organizers of the Olympic Games – have put together a veritable armada of sponsors. To optimize revenue as much as possible, the organizers prioritize them into three main categories:

1° “TOP” partners, who engage directly with the IOC. The latter – Coca-Cola, Airbnb, Samsung, etc. – have the greatest visibility among spectators, before, during and after the event; 2° “Premium” partners, where we find the largest French companies: Carrefour, LVMH, Orange, Sanofi, EDF… These brands above all have national visibility; 3° “Official partners” and “official supporters”, who will have almost no visibility in the stadiums. However, their sponsorship contract gives them the right to carry out events in their stores.

What’s the point of all this energy expenditure? If advertising does not meet the needs of either athletes or the population, it allows organizers to make the event as profitable as possible. In exchange, partner companies improve their image, as Michel Desbordes, specialist in sports marketing, explains: “ this program offers maximum visibility to brands. Multinationals that have a bad image because they are, for example, big polluters, can redeem their notoriety “.

For example, Coca-Cola, one of the Olympic movement’s most loyal partners, is the world’s largest plastic polluter. Anne Hidalgo, who presents these games as ecological, has nothing to say on the subject. Alibaba, another partner, is known for the brutal exploitation of its employees with working days of more than 12 hours. This does not prevent President Macron from presenting these Games as popular…

The important thing is not to participate, but to pay

Last pillar of financing games: ticketing revenue. Here again, the COJOP leaders remain faithful to the Olympic motto! Indeed, ticket prices quickly reached new heights: 36,220 euros per person for luxury packaging. At this price, the event is certainly unforgettable! And just for the opening of the Olympics, you have to pay between 90 and 2,700 euros to attend the “popular” ceremony, of course!

According to a survey, 82% of French people consider that ticket prices are too high. And for good reason: in most cases, you have to pay several hundred euros to obtain the precious sesame!

The number of low-cost places has fallen enormously compared to previous Olympics. For example, those in London, in 2012, offered 2.5 million places at 23 euros. The Paris Olympics offer barely 1 million at an equivalent price.

In addition, tickets were first sold in “packs” of three sports. For example, by purchasing a ticket to attend a basketball match, you are obliged to purchase tickets for two other events. This obviously increases the final bill. For athletics events, prices often exceed 600 euros.

Furthermore, for accommodation, employers in the tourism sector may be rubbing their hands at the soaring prices of a simple bedroom. Thus, Airbnb predicts an 85% increase in housing prices on the platform during the event. At the same time, the CROUS is evicting young people from its accommodation as part of the organization of the Games, and a large part of Parisians are struggling to find housing… It is clear that faced with this organization that is unjust in every way, the masses ” popular” will not be invited to the “party”.