Europe 1 with AFP 15:30 pm, April 12, 2023

The CGT has just announced an "act 2" of the strike of garbage collectors through its waste and sanitation sector, still in protest of the pension reform. A necessary decision for the union which explains that a "large majority" of cleaning staff "has a life expectancy of 12 to 17 years less than all employees of France".

The CGT of the waste and sanitation sector of Paris confirmed Wednesday its determination to carry out an "act 2" of the mobilization of garbage collectors against the pension reform, with a new call for a renewable strike from Thursday. "We are starting again, because for us this pension reform must fall, regardless of the decision of the Constitutional Council on Friday," said at a press briefing Regis Vieceli, general secretary of the CGT-FTDNEEA union.

The CGT had announced on March 28 a suspension of the movement begun on March 6, for lack of strikers in sufficient number, in order to remobilize its troops. "We worked for this, we had to discuss again with our comrades, with our colleagues in the workshops, in the garages, including with the comrades of the private sector, and we hope to have a high rate of strikers tomorrow (Thursday). It has to be stronger than last time," added Régis Vieceli. Garbage that piles up in the streets of the capital, and sometimes ignites in the evening at the passage of radical demonstrators... The images went around the world as up to 10,000 tons of household waste remained uncollected on some days.

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12 to 17 years less life than French employees

According to the CGT, the pension reform would have the effect of raising from 57 to 59 the retirement age of garbage collectors and dumpster drivers employed by the City of Paris, and from 62 to 64 that of private sector employees, while "the vast majority of staff of the Directorate of Cleanliness and Water (DPE) has a life expectancy of 12 to 17 years less than all employees of France".

"We have a completely unprecedented movement in the sector, we have never had such an intensity of strike. The movement is not weakening. The garbage collectors of Saint-Brieuc have been on strike for six weeks," said François Livartowski, federal secretary of the CGT-public services, but reported "very strong pressure on the strikers from employers, with threats and intimidation". The CGT counted "more than forty walkouts" in the sector in France, he added.