Environmental defense associations and residents denounced Monday, January 24 "
the catastrophic management of waste
" in Marseille, where a third trash collection strike in four months continues, against a backdrop of standoff between the metropolis and garbage collectors .
Read alsoTeachers more reluctant to the second act of the strike
"
Marseille is the only city capable of chaining a World Conservation Congress in September and an unprecedented garbage collectors' strike
", denounce fifteen neighborhood and environmental defense associations, in an open letter to the Aix-Marseille-Provence Metropolis acting as a petition.
In October, during a first strike, torrential rains carried tons of waste piled up in the streets to the sea, causing an ecological disaster.
Several hundred volunteers were then mobilized to clean the beaches.
“An umpteenth strike”
"
After (this) disaster on marine biodiversity, we thought the situation was settled, and yet the city of Marseille was adorned with yet another strike which ultimately never stopped
", note the authors of the letter, whose committees district of Aygalades or Saint-Barnabé, for whom "
the conditions for ecocide are being put back in place
". In several districts, the waste overflows the dumpsters and invades the roads, where they are crushed by cars. And in front of the restaurants the heaps of rubbish are growing visibly.
"
Let's seize this crisis to get up stronger
", proclaim the associations, which call for "
cleanliness meetings
" to give Marseille "
waste management
" worthy of the second city of France. “
In this case, everyone is guilty: the citizens, the metropolis, the unions. But everyone is also capable of doing better
, "explained to AFP Alexandre Mounier, president of the association"
a waste per day
", returned symbolically Monday on the polluted beach in October. "
We want to federate the discontent of residents by organizing a citizen counter-power
", added Sarah Bourgeois, of the collective "
Marseille trash life
“, with 21,000 subscribers on Facebook.
The issue of working time
This last round of strikes, which began at the end of September, mainly concerns the issue of working time and the application of the 35-hour working week.
After a first agreement, rejected by some of the unions, a second had been signed, providing for a 15% reduction in working time for garbage collectors in metropolitan France, in charge since 2016 of waste management in place of the various municipalities. .
But, for a week, Force Ouvrière, the majority union in the city, has resumed a new strike movement alone, arguing that the metropolis has not respected certain commitments, in particular on the payment of a bonus of 100 euros for the work of the Sunday and public holidays.
A provision rejected as illegal by the metropolis.
Read alsoNew garbage collectors' strike in Marseille: requisitions of agents
"
I do not understand this strike, on the 100 euros, it was sure that the answer was going to be no, since it is capped
", confided to AFP Véronique Dolot, of the CGT: "
For the Covid, we carries another claim: to stagger the schedules so that the agents meet as little as possible
”.
This agreement, "
it's better than nothing, we are now in the time of the application of the agreement, not in that of new claims
", she added.
For the metropolis too, the time for negotiations seems to have passed.
At his request, the police headquarters requisitioned officers on Friday to pick up the 1,500 tonnes of garbage accumulated in the streets, unheard of after only three days of walkout.
"
It
“, denounced Patrick Rué, the local boss of FO, who seized the administrative court on Monday.
Judgment is expected on Tuesday.