The situation of waste collection in Paris was confused, Friday, March 17, the twelfth day of the strike of garbage collectors against the pension reform, with 10,000 tons of waste not collected but a government that says that the requisition of agents "works".

The symbolic bar of 10,000 tons was crossed Friday noon, according to the estimate of the town hall, which subtracts the waste that could be collected compared to the average in normal times.

The mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, a supporter of the social movement, had refused Wednesday to request the requisition of agents to the prefect of police.

But according to Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin Friday morning, the prefect "required" Thursday night "the cleanliness service of the city" to evacuate the garbage. "As of today, from this morning, this requisition works and makes it possible to collect these garbage," said the Minister of the Interior on RTL.

"No dumpster came out on the public side," said Friday afternoon the entourage of the mayor of Paris. So no pickup.

Pedestrians walk past full garbage cans in the 5th arrondissement of Paris, March 17, 2023. © Bertrand Guay, AFP

The capital has a special collection system, introduced by its first mayor, Jacques Chirac: the agents of the town hall ensure the collection of waste in half of the arrondissements (2nd, 5th, 6th, 8th, 9th, 11th, 14th, 16th, 17th and 20th), while the other half is served by private providers.

"We did not have a dumpster in the districts in public," confirms Delphine Bürkli, the mayor Horizons of the 9th arrondissement, managed by the public and therefore very touched by the lack of collection. But "requisitions of garages [of garbage trucks] for private providers" have taken place, says the right-wing elected representative, who calls for "the solidarity of the City" to equalize waste treatment between boroughs.

Call to the army for pick-up

Precisely, things are a little better in the 15th arrondissement whose private provider saw, after a legal appeal, his garage unblocked Thursday by the police. With this unblocking, the 15th "recovered five skips" compared to the beginning of the strike, 10 in total "who work all day," says the mayor LR Philippe Goujon.

"The problem, since we started collecting again, is that the dumpsters are forced to go to Romainville", a commune located in Seine-Saint-Denis, east of the capital, opposite the 15th. In this waste transfer center, they must then wait "one to two hours to unload" because of the general congestion, explains the right-wing elected official. The mayor of the 15th therefore calls for the unblocking of the incinerators of the metropolitan union (Syctom), chaired by the socialist Corentin Duprey and who does not want at this stage to ask for the intervention of the police.

"There are only 5 or 6% of garbage collectors on strike," says Delphine Bürkli, who asks to "call on the army to clear the streets". The town hall acknowledges that the rate of strikers among its cleaners is "below 10%".

49.3 "remobilized the troops"

For the mayor (Horizons) of the 5th arrondissement, Florence Berthout: "These 5% (of strikers) have the power to block all the collection, or almost, by carrying out two types of actions: block garages in municipal management and incineration centers".

In Ivry-sur-Seine, the largest of Syctom's three incineration sites, police came Friday to dislodge the strikers on one of the two adjoining garages, before withdrawing.

Access to the factory and the two garbage truck garages is still blocked, AFP found. According to the CGT, 95% of the employees of the Ivry treatment site and all the drivers of the two garages were on strike on Friday.

The use of 49.3 decided Thursday by the government "has remobilized the troops, in fact (...). We had never had this 100% of strikers on these two garages" of Ivry, "we have it," said on the spot Regis Vieceli, secretary general CGT of the waste and sanitation sector in Paris.

"We have twelve years less life expectancy for garbage collectors, and seven years less for sewer workers," said Fréderic Aubisse, a 54-year-old drainer. With two more years of work, "we will die at work as they say, it is not possible," he says.

The garbage collectors interviewed are determined to continue their renewable strike in rotation until Monday, the day of the general assembly that must decide on the continuation of the movement.

With AFP

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