The Eiffel Tower in Paris, one of the world's most recognized structures and a tourist magnet, reopened Thursday, after a two-day strike by workers demanding higher wages and better working conditions.

CGT union, which represents most of the tower's 300 workers, called for the walkout Tuesday, after seven hours of talks with the company that manages the tower failed Monday night.

"The operation is resuming gradually so that the monument opens normally Thursday at 9 a.m.," Société d'Exploitation de la Tour Eiffel said in a statement, the Wall Street Journal reported.

CGT's demands for bigger salaries and better working conditions came as the city prepares for the peak tourist season, which begins in June and lasts through September. The union also had complained about a lack of maintenance for the tower lifts, which carry millions of tourists up and down the monument all year long.

"The waiting lines are growing longer, the visitors are growing more and more impatient and the work conditions are deteriorating," CGT had said in a statement.

Opened in 1889, the 324-meter (1,063-foot) structure gets about 25,000 tourists every day and about seven million tourists every year. Tuesday's strike was the first at the Eiffel Tower since a two-day shutdown in December 2010.

The tower, which was the world's tallest manmade structure until the Chrysler Building was built in New York in 1930, usually remains open throughout the year except when it's occasionally closed following incidents such as a bomb scare or a suicide threat.

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