• The Toulouse metropolis has launched a study on the possibility of delegating to the private sector the collection of household waste from one of the depots in the Toulouse conurbation.

  • If nothing is done yet, the threat of partial privatization of this public service is already creating controversy.

  • The vice-president in charge of the file speaks of dysfunctions in this sector, the unions of structural problems and untenable tours.

In January, after several days of strike by garbage collectors in the Toulouse metropolitan area, the president of the community, Jean-Luc Moudenc, brandished the threat of privatization.

After a month of mobilization, and an agreement after the end of the "finished party" imposed by the Law of transformation of the public service, the agents of the waste collection had resumed work in mid-January.

But the idea of ​​entrusting part of the garbage collection to the private sector has not yet been abandoned.

It has just resurfaced four months after the end of the movement and more specifically targets the Union depot, which covers, among others, the municipalities of Balma, Castelginest and Launaguet.

“In this sector, we are faced with unfinished or almost unfinished tours.

We cannot be told about the calibration of the rounds, because some have been carried out and since the reform, the management works very well in all the other depots.

There are behaviors that raise questions and I have asked the services of Toulouse Métropole to study the possibility of a public contract to delegate it to the private sector", explains Vincent Terrain-Novés, vice-president in charge of waste and cleanliness.

For the moment, it is far from being done and the chosen one hopes “a reaction” from the agents.

But he does not hide being, already, satisfied with the work of the private company which operates the collection in Saint-Orens or Quint-Fonsegrives.

The trade unions are standing up

An eventuality that is not to the taste of the unions of the metropolis.

“If the subject were to be clarified or if the community were to push its study, the FO union would not fail to strongly oppose”, explains Nicolas Refutin, representative of territorial FOs.

The agents concerned are preparing to send an open letter to the vice-president to respond point by point to his grievances against the deposit of The Union.

“At L'Union, it's a structural problem, they have added municipalities to their tours, without increasing the means and since the reform, the working time has increased.

So they can't finish.

They want to privatize, because it's their policy and they start with L'Union because in the event of a strike Toulouse won't mind,” complains Benoît Fontanilles of the independent FAFPT union.

For the latter, abandoning the management on this deposit would not change the situation since the private companies are obliged to take over the employees.

“And if they were incompetent, as suggested by the management, it is not by going through the private sector that it would make them competent”, highlights the trade unionist.

An “aggression against the entire profession” for the opposition

This criticism of a study of the privatization of part of the sectors also arouses criticism from the opposition group Alternative for a Citizen Metropolis (AMC).

“This announcement is a real attack on the entire profession.

We strongly condemn this attempt to destroy one of the public services essential to the proper functioning of our Metropolis, an attempt which we will oppose.

After engaging in a veritable tussle last winter with the collection agents, the metropolitan executive is provoking again by initiating an attempt at privatization because of alleged dysfunctions, ”deplores Marc Péré.

The mayor of L'Union and, moreover, a member of the AMC group, is asking for a debate in the metropolitan council before any initiative on the part of the majority.

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  • Garbage

  • Privatization

  • Waste

  • Trash

  • Public service

  • Occitania

  • Toulouse