One torture ended and another began.
Paris was covered in garbage before the adherence of the garbage collectors to the union force movement against the pension reform in France.
The Paris garbage strike ended Wednesday night.
It had started on March 6 and had the support of the mayoress of the capital, Anne Hidalgo.
The rats will disappear, the waves of pigeons and crows
on the piles of garbage.
The new problem is having the bad luck to enter a street with the car or a taxi, where a garbage truck is collecting its waste.
The wait and the smell can be unbearable.
Clearing each sidewalk can take hours.
“The garbage collectors have arrived!
Did you see the studs?
They occupied all the sidewalks of rue St Nicolas.
The smell was unbearable, unhealthy and difficult for a restaurant to work”, explained Giuseppe, the Neapolitan owner of the Assaporare restaurant, in the Bastille neighborhood.
Garbage bags and containers, in a corner of Paris.
Photo: BLOOMBERG
conflict symbol
Striking garbage collectors or sanitation workers in Paris began returning to work on Wednesday, ending one of the most enduring symbols of opposition to French President Emmanuel Macron's unpopular pension bill.
When the protests across the country also seemed to be winding down, the garbage cans littering the street were testimony that the conflict continued.
Awaiting the cleanup crews were piles of rubbish, which had accumulated during their week-long strike, as well as rubble from the streets, after ten national protests against pension reform.
The accumulated garbage reached up to 10,000 tons along the streets of the French capital.
The same weight as the Eiffel Tower.
It had a double meaning: to protest and serve as fuel for the extremists of “black blocs” in the demonstrations, to burn them and violently confront the police.
The overflowing green and yellow garbage bins became a
visual and olfactory symbol of opposition to Macron's plan
to raise the retirement age by two years.
For most people that means working until age 64 once the measure, which is under review by the Constitutional Council, is approved or rejected.
The wise men will pronounce on April 14.
An excavator removes garbage from the French capital, this Thursday.
Photo: AFP
The sanitation workers, who had blocked three incineration plants and garbage truck depots, are retiring earlier than most: at 57, because of their unhealthy work.
Although many work longer to increase their pension.
The new plan would raise his retirement age to 59.
Many strikers mentioned
health problems
if they were forced to work longer.
a slow process
In a decision that brought relief to many Paris residents, the CGT labor union, which represents sanitation workers, announced that the three-week strike would be "suspended" from Wednesday.
The teams will join others, who have been legally "required" over the past week, to help with the daunting cleanup process in Paris.
But the work will be slow.
A CGT statement stated that the searches of trucks, incinerators and personnel, ordered by the Paris police prefect, had bled the movement dry, which led to its suspension.
But he added that "the fight is not over."
The strikers were left without followers.
But they are going to rediscuss to restart their fight.
“The fight is not over.
Macron and (Prime Minister Elisabeth) Borne must withdraw this reform and return to the negotiating table," the union claimed.
Garbage covered Paris in nearly three weeks of the collectors' strike.
Photo: EFE
There are at least 7,000 tons left to continue collecting in the streets of the French capital.
"We have lost almost a month's salary. For us, who are poorly paid, it is unbearable," explained Mickaël, a garbage collector on strike until Wednesday.
The biggest problem now is the blocking of the three incinerators in the Ile de France, which must incinerate the garbage and will take time.
It's hard to say how long it will take to finally clean up the streets of Paris.
The
suspension of the strike,
along with the decline in the number of protests, is seen by some as the beginning of the end of the demonstrations against the pension bill.
“Although Macron's unpopularity has risen astronomically, living with this garbage has become unbearable.
I think it is already a health problem for everyone.
The streets have to be cleaned up,” said Gilbert Dumas, who lives in the touristy Place de Vosges.
Bisk, an artist, decided to make art out of trash.
“The police stop me when I'm working because they think I'm going to set the garbage on fire.
But I'm just making art," Bisk said.
“I am not a politician.
I just turn trash into gold,” he argued.
The conflict between the unions and the government continues.
Prime Minister Elizabeth Borne has invited the workers' unions to Matignon next week.
But
a new protest march is planned for April 6
across France.
Students will actively participate in this demonstration, "who in the streets are the anguish of governments", according to Razzy Hammadi, president of the young socialists in the battle against the CPE and Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin.
”That happened in 2006 and it hasn't changed.
They are going to have to withdraw the project, ”she predicts.
The young people are going to replace the wage-earners, who cannot lose more days of work with the strike.
Although the unions help them monetarily for the days lost.
Paris, correspondent
BC
look too
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