The Force Ouvrière union and the Aix-Marseille-Provence metropolis announced on Wednesday the end of the garbage collectors’ strike movement which had lasted for 15 days.
The Aix-Provence-Marseille metropolis and the powerful FO union announced on Wednesday the end of the garbage collectors’ strike, the third in four months, with a return to normal which should take at least a week.
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The strike notice will be officially lifted from Thursday evening, after an agreement which notably provides for an increase of 40 euros gross for the “muddy” Marseille, announced the two parties. “With 2,000 tonnes of waste remaining, the conservative estimate is that in eight days it will all be picked up”, explained Yves Moraine, the elected LR in charge of negotiations on this file for the metropolis.
For the Marseillais, the impatience was palpable to find clean and passable streets, after 15 days of erratic garbage collection. Since Tuesday morning, the mayor of Marseille, for which this is not however the competence, had also made “act urgently” private dump trucks to try to pick up the heaps of rubbish threatening to end up in the sea with the strong mistral. “The trash can crisis could not last any longer, the people of Marseille were exasperated by this situation, and rightly so”, reacted Wednesday evening Benoît Payan, elected in June 2020 at the head of the second city of France with a left-wing coalition. This additional emergency collection system will continue until the return to normal, he said in a press release.
35 hours, increase and “Covid clause”
Since the first strike, which began in September, metropolis and unions negotiated the application of 35 hours for garbage collectors, as provided by law for all civil servants. In December they had already obtained a 15% reduction in their working time compared to the 1,607 annual hours normally required, to compensate for the arduous nature of their job. But Force Ouvrière went on strike alone on January 18, considering that the agreement concluded in December with all the trade unions was not respected. FO, the majority among territorial agents in the city, demanded in particular an increase of 80 euros for Marseille garbage collectors, who would be paid less than their counterparts in other municipalities of the metropolis, which has 92.
“We have come to an agreement that satisfies both parties”, detailed the deputy secretary general FO in metropolitan France, Patrice Ayache. This includes in particular an increase of 40 euros gross for garbage collectors in Marseille, as well as the opening at the beginning of March of a “revaluation project of the entire compensation scheme” garbage collectors. It also provides for the maintenance of a “Covid-clause” as long as the health context requires it, that is to say the possibility for agents to shower and change at home rather than at their workplace, added Yves Moraine. “A strike is never pleasant, living in the middle of the waste either, but we experienced for the first time in this city a modern social dialogue”, added the elected official, welcoming, throughout this period, having negotiated with all the unions, the CGT and the Unsa in particular, and not only FO.
Risk of waste being pushed out to sea
This new garbage crisis was all the more threatening as the city has been subjected since Monday to a very violent mistral which risked both carrying a large part of the waste towards the sea, but also fanning the fires of garbage cans. here and there by exasperated Marseillais. Since this weekend, “we have about fifteen garbage fires a day”, detailed Tuesday to AFP the rear-admiral Augier, commander of the battalion of firefighters of Marseilles. And the risk “with this strong wind, it’s going towards a drama”, he added, fearing that the flames would spread to adjacent buildings.
At the beginning of October, after the first strike of this movement, hundreds of tons of waste still in the streets had been pushed towards the sea by the torrential rains which had fallen on Marseilles.
SEE ALSO – Third garbage collection strike in four months in Marseille (01/24/2022)