Two more years to work, for them, it’s impossible. This is why for two weeks, the garbage collectors have been mobilized and refuse to resume the collection of garbage cans. If the reform is passed, garbage collectors and sanitation workers will retire at 59 instead of 57.
Household waste continues to accumulate on the sidewalks of streets in the Paris region. The garbage collectors’ strike against the pension reform, renewable for two weeks, can be seen with the naked eye.
On the incineration site of Ivry-sur-Seine (Val-de-Marne), about thirty people maintain the pickets. All testify to the arduous nature of their jobs, to their bodies put to the test every day. “ Every day, I get up at 4:45 a.m. to carry, in pairs, between six and 16 tons of garbage. I have tendinitis in both elbows. Back pain, we don’t even talk about it anymore. We are marked in the body by the work “, sighs Karim Kerkoudi who is doing his calculations. For him, it will be 67 years for a full pension.
n is not here to mess things up. We’re here not to work till death “Explains another garbage collector interviewed by AFP. Heavy dumpsters, foul odors, traffic and sometimes difficult contact with motorists: their working days constantly put them in a situation of intense stress and significant fatigue.
At the Romainville garage, east of Paris, the same story to explain the reason for the strike. At the start of his career, a dumpster driver earns around 1,450 euros and can hope to finish it with 2,200 euros. In front of the site, a filter dam was set up after a requisition from the police. Of the 80 trucks, only a dozen left the garage to operate in Paris.
Arm wrestling between the town hall and the State
The mayor of Paris refused the requisitions of garbage collectors to limit the effects of their strike. This explains why in the streets of Paris, waste is piling up. For Anne Hidalgo, “ the claim of the garbage collectors of the City of Paris, who legitimately wish not to work two more years (…) is just ” And ” the only response likely to appease the current climate is to engage in social dialogue rather than deliver a showdown by making requisitions “.
The prefect of police of Paris, will he proceed to requisitions for reasons of “public health”? This is what Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin suggested to the Senate.
This Monday, March 20, two motions of censure were filed against the government of Elisabeth Borne. They will be submitted to the vote of the deputies. If they do not obtain an absolute majority, the pension reform will be definitively adopted, despite the dispute and garbage collectors and sanitation workers will retire at 59 instead of 57.
(With AFP)