Mountains of garbage cans in some Toulouse neighborhoods : it’s been almost two weeks since the city’s garbage collectors have been on strike, the notice was filed on December 15. This Monday again, part of the household waste was not picked up, the inter-union evoking nearly 90% of the striking staff. However, negotiations are continuing.
The hard days at the heart of the conflict
Unions and management have met “two or three since the start of the strike”, explains the vice-president of the Metropolis in charge of waste and cleanliness Vincent Terrail-Novès. Both parties have fallen agree on the abandonment of the finished one, a practice which until then allowed garbage collectors to return home once the collection was completed regardless of the time, but the inter-union asks in exchange to obtain days off for hardship. Two days are offered by the management, “an insult to their profession”, answer the unions who demand much more.
On the other hand, progress has been made on other points, such as the increase in the remuneration of team leaders, also for Saturdays and public holidays or the resumption of contract workers at the time of the retirement of about twenty agents next year.
What solution by then for garbage collection?
The solution envisaged by the Metropolis is to deploy non-strikers as a priority in sectors where collection has not been done for a long time, to the detriment of areas where bins have been collected more regularly or more recently.
On the other hand, there is no longer any question of calling on private companies, as was the case at the start of the movement. They cannot ensure the entire collection of Toulouse and its metropolis over the long term, for lack of staff and materials. Each company has only three or four skips, while the Metropolis has 80.