National strike may hurt Paris bid
 |  French Olympic chiefs say a national strike will not affect chances for 2012 |
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PARIS, France -- Paris 2012 Olympic bid chiefs insist a visit by the IOC's evaluation commission will not be affected by a national stike called by French public sector unions for March 10.
The strike and demonstrations, called to protest government plans to alter the 35-hour working week, come during the four-day tour of inspection by the 13-strong commission.
The commission will be visiting the venues proposed by the French capital for the 2012 Games on the day of the demonstrations.
"The demonstrations will be far away from where we will be visiting," said Phillipe Baudillon, CEO of the Paris bid.
"We will not have to make any changes to the programme planned for the evaluation commission."
He firmly rejected suggestions that the union action could harm the city's attempt to beat out London, New York, Madrid and Moscow for the 2012 Games.
"The unions do not want to hurt the Paris bid. We have been working with all the French unions and they helped us put together the bid book. We have letters from all union chiefs giving the bid their full support," he said.
Union leaders confirmed that their industrial action was in no way connected with the IOC team's visit.
"We have given assurances that our demonstration will not harm a successful visit to Paris by the IOC's evaluation commission," a union statement said.
The evaluation commission visted London last week and are currently touring New York.
Their report on the five bid cities is expected to be published on June 6 - one month before the IOC votes in Singapore to decide the winner.
