“At least until March 20” : the garbage collectors and cleaning agents of the City of Paris, who contest the pension reform project, voted on Tuesday March 14 to continue their strike in the capital where waste is piled up on the sidewalks.
In the middle of the evening, due to “sanitary conditions” reigning in Paris, Gérald Darmanin instructed the Paris police chief, Laurent Nunez, to ask the town hall to “to requisition” means to dispose of garbage.
Some 7,000 tonnes of uncollected garbage were counted on the ninth day of the strike, according to the first deputy mayor of Paris, Emmanuel Grégoire, who deplores a “catastrophic situation created by the government”.
If the town hall does not respond to the requisition request, “the state will replace”, advanced the entourage of the Minister of the Interior. This means that the State will requisition means to collect and evacuate the waste.
Place Beauvau, we also mentioned the letter sent to the minister by the mayor LR of the 7th arrondissement of Paris, Rachida Dati, for him to intervene. An episode which comes at a time when the presidential majority needs the support of LR parliamentarians for the adoption of its pension reform which it hopes for Thursday.
Blocked incinerators
On Tuesday, the blocking of the incinerator of Ivry-sur-Seine, south of Paris, continued and the strikers organized themselves to hold the pickets at night. “We block but we don’t do anything”says Julien Lejeune, 44, agent of the town hall of Paris in charge of waste water and CGT delegate. “We do guard shifts, we watch that there is no deterioration of the equipment or intrusion”.
The Ivry incinerator – the largest in Europe with nearly 700,000 tonnes of waste treated each year and managed by the public operator Syctom – has been shut down since March 6, like that of Issy- les-Moulineaux (Hauts-de-Seine), also on strike. That of Saint-Ouen (Seine-Saint-Denis) is undergoing maintenance.
Strikers say they feel “supported by the majority of the population”. “We see that public opinion is on our side, it’s nice”says Guillaume Konrad, 38, head of the Paris sewer office. “Even the police came yesterday (Monday) to encourage us”he assures.
that the discontented “address (to President) Emmanuel Macron so that he abandons his reform”asserts Régis Vieceli, CGT general secretary of the FTDNEEA (Treatment, waste, cleaning, water, sewer and sanitation sector) in Paris.
The movement also affects some provincial towns. In Rennes, the strike started on Monday and the collection could not be carried out on Tuesday, according to the Suez group, which is responsible for it. Collection is also disrupted in Saint-Brieuc (Côtes-d’Armor).
Actions also disrupted waste collection in Nantes, as well as in Seine-Maritime. Tuesday morning, “a hundred demonstrators blocked the trucks” at the waste treatment center of the Metropolis of Rouen, assured Gérald Le Corre of the CGT departmental union.
A job « unhealthy »
The town hall of Paris, whose agents manage the collection of household waste in half of the arrondissements, says to itself “solidarity” of the social movement. A position attacked by the government.
On Tuesday, the Minister of Transport, Clément Beaune, declared on France 2 to wait for the mayor of Paris “that it take concrete measures such as pooling collection and storage between districts, or even requisitioning”. “The requisition consists in forcing strikers to come and do their job: it is a competence of the State over a problem created by the State”replied Emmanuel Grégoire in the afternoon.
The city “put in place remedial measures” et “it’s more than the minimum service” which is insured with 23,000 tons picked up out of 30,000 in ten days, he said, acknowledging having recourse to private agents “on absolute emergencies”.
Reinforcements
In the 15th arrondissement of Paris, the private operator Pizzorno, whose garage in Val-de-Marne has been blocked by students and activists for several days, called on dumpsters from the suburbs and the provinces to collect , assured the LR mayor of the borough, Philippe Goujon. “We come from the Var (Draguignan) and we came as reinforcements for the strike”declared in Paris a garbage collector for Pizzorno, Mourad Nacer.
If the reform is passed, garbage collectors and sanitation workers should retire at 59 instead of 57 currently. An extension of working time ” unthinkable “ for the strikers who are advancing a “excess mortality” in their professions and a very shortened life expectancy compared to other professions.
“Our job is not only arduous, it is dangerous and unhealthy”argues Julien Lejeune. “We do shifts to keep a minimum salary, we work in slow motion, so we don’t break the strike”explains anonymously Eric, 54, garbage collector in the 16th arrondissement, who says he earns less than €1,900 gross per month but thinks himself “willing to lose days of wages to win this fight”.