In the dialogue of the deaf between the metropolis and the garbage collectors of Marseille, justice is struggling to be heard. After the city’s summary summons against FO, the majority union, in order to request the lifting of the blockages of transfer centers and garages where dump trucks are stored, the administrative court ruled this Saturday. The strikers are ordered to “release without delay” these strategic sites, under penalty of a penalty of 250 euros per day of delay and per person blocking these sites.
“It’s a non-event, we judge something that no longer exists”, reacted Patrick Rué, the boss of FO in Marseille, estimating that the strikers, who are now around forty on average per day, no longer block the sites. The Aix-Marseille-Provence metropolis, which manages waste collection, believes on the contrary that these blockages remain intermittently. Be that as it may, the strike continues, insisted Patrick Rué, who believes that “the solution is not to be found in the courts but in social dialogue”.
The frustration of the inhabitants
This new strike, which has lasted for ten days, is the third in four months in Marseille. FO considers that certain provisions of a previous agreement concluded at the end of December with all the trade unions around the application of 35 hours, and in particular on Sunday bonuses, are not respected. On Saturday, Mayor Benoît Payan banged his fist on the table: “That’s enough (…), I wish, I want and I demand that the city be clean”, he was annoyed in the daily La Provence. And he accuses the metropolis of “being an ostrich”: “People are going to have to talk to each other, willingly or by force”.
The Marseillais themselves express their fed up, in the streets, where they have to step over the heaps of overflowing trash cans, or on social networks. Some even came to deposit their waste in front of the FO headquarters. “They were in their early twenties this (Saturday) morning, we discussed with them… We understand that the Marseillais are exasperated, but why are they not going to express it in front of the metropolis? “, replied Patrick Rué.
In the meantime, 3,000 tons of waste have accumulated in the streets of Marseilles and every day 1,000 additional tons arrive. The metropolis also faces the absence of more than 200 agents due to illness. The announced arrival of the mistral from Sunday on Marseille should not help, while everyone keeps in mind the images of the beaches covered with waste after torrential rains in October, during a previous strike.