French show business workers protesting cuts to their unemployment benefits briefly blocked a shipment of movie reels headed for the Cannes Film Festival, demonstrators said Saturday.
About 100 actors, technicians, musicians and other show business workers camped out late Friday at a warehouse in Garges-les-Gonesse, in suburban Paris, unloading the films from trucks and blocking the gate, organizers and warehouse officials said. They left early Saturday, vowing more protests at the international film festival.
The workers have been locked in a standoff with the government for months. They vowed to take their protest to the Cannes festival, which opens Wednesday.
Last summer, major protests by performing artists led to the cancellation of the famed Avignon theater festival and many others.
Cannes, however, likely will only face disruptions and runs little chance of being canceled by a full-out strike. Unlike many other festivals, Cannes does not depend on part-time show-business workers.
The artists are angry about a reform to France’s unemployment fund, which takes into account their downtime between shows.
The fund has an $1 billion shortfall, and Medef, the powerful business federation that helps operate the system, has pushed to reduce the benefits. The government moved several days ago to soften the reform, but protesters said they weren’t satisfied. The plan takes effect next year.
Wednesday’s opening film at Cannes is “Bad Education” by Pedro Almodovar, about boys at a Roman Catholic school in Spain in the 1960s.