Transport, energy, refineries… The renewable strike calls have multiplied in many sectors with a novelty: the arrival of garbage collectors to the movement.
The CGT has thus called the work stoppage starting this Tuesday, March 7. All employees, both those in charge of collecting and sorting waste and those assigned to cleaning the streets, are concerned. The strike will be renewable.
Remember that the collection and classification sector is not organized in the same way in the territory. It is shared between the public service, managed by local authorities, and private companies such as Veolia, Derichebourg and Nicollin, which operate under public service delegations.
In Paris, 3,000 tons of waste are collected every day
Sometimes, in big cities like Paris, cleaning management is entrusted to both public service and private companies (10 districts each).
Consequently, the employees depend on different union federations: that of public services or that of transport.
“It is our contribution, our participation in the inter-union call for the blockade of the economy,” François Livartowski, federal secretary of the CGT-public services, told AFP. “Two more years of work would mean, for many of us, the risk of dying before retirement, or soon after.”
These professionals claim retirement at age 60 due to the hard work of their work. Leaving at 64 “is nonsense”, underlines in the microphone of BFM Ile-de-France Régis Vieceli, Secretary General CGT Cleaning in the city of Paris.
Unlike other sectors, only the CGT launched this call for a strike but given its weight in the sector (in the public and private sectors), particularly in Paris, the riots are already palpable.
Concerned businesses and residents
Waste collection and access to treatment sites are already disrupted. Since Monday, “at least in four districts the bins have not been collected: on the 6th, 14th, 17th and 20th for the moment,” says Natacha Pommet, general secretary of Public Services of the CGT. “Several thousand tons of household waste” were not collected, the plant adds.
In addition, all three waste incinerators, including the one in Ivry, which covers part of Paris and its southeastern suburbs, were inoperative on Tuesday.
The city council indicates that the riots will continue at least this Tuesday since the employees of Veolia and Suez are called to join the movement in the 10 municipalities entrusted to the private sector. This strongly accentuates the volume of garbage that will not be collected.
Obviously, the fear of overflow is already strong on the part of the residents and merchants of the capital. “Paris is no longer healthy,” laments a resident interviewed by BFM Ile-de-France, “we don’t have to suffer from that, it’s already complicated enough like that business,” adds a baker from the 14th arrondissement.
In Montpellier, “the city will be dirty and the smells will begin to spread”
A long-term conflict could quickly turn into a nightmare. Every day 3,000 tons of waste are collected in Paris and 15,000 in Ile-de-France.
In the provinces it is still difficult to know to what extent the movement is being followed. In Montpellier, no truck leaves the depot of the private company Nicollin, while urban cleaning is also affected, reports the newspaper free lunch.
“In less than four days the rats will begin to come out due to the accumulation of bags on the ground, they will quickly vomit, especially in neighborhoods where there is high consumption, the city will be dirty and the odors will begin to spread. warns an employee interviewed by our colleagues.
In Marseille, the collection agents are not yet on strike. But anger is brewing, because of the pension reform, but above all because of the reorganization projects sought by Aix-Marseille Metropolis. Last year, several major strikes led to massive overflows and health risks for weeks, angering residents.
Source: BFM TV
