Most of the unions representing technical staff at the Op_ra withdrew their strike threats last week; only SUD, a minority union which represents many of the scenery and lighting workers at the Op_ra-Bastille (the newer of the company's two houses), is continuing its strike until the end of this month.
The Op_ra has offered ticketholders who don't want to see the reduced Nutcracker the choice of a refund or an exchange for tickets to a program of dances by Nureyev, Balanchine and William Forsythe in April and May.
The strikes at the opera house are part of the waves of walkouts that have crippled the transportation, hospital, education and other sectors of the French economy over the past two months. National unions are protesting President Nicolas Sarkozy's plan to reform the entire complicated (and expensive) regime of pension schemes that various national trade unions have negotiated for their professions over the years.
This fall's labor actions are estimated to have cost the Paris Opera at least €2.5 million so far.