Bags piling up on the ground, in a large part of downtown Marseille, and rubbish which gradually covers the road. For nearly four days, the Marseille city has again faced a garbage strike, especially in the 1st, 4th, 5th, 6th and 7th arrondissements of the city.
The movement began Thursday evening, with a walkout of some of the agents in the Cabucelle depot, in the northern districts, at the call of the CGT which filed a strike notice on September 1. The days go by and this movement continues, until it gains ground. According to our information, this Sunday, only seven skips, out of the 27 in this depot, thus left the Cabucelle depot.
An explosive dossier
And the horizon does not seem to brighten, as the file at the origin of this strike is explosive. As required by the law on the transformation of the civil service of August 6, 2019, the metropolis is currently carrying out a reform of the working time of these agents effective by January 1, 2022, and in particular of collection agents. .
Currently, the latter work in fact about 1,486 hours per year, which is much less than the 1,607 annual hours required by this law, which corresponds to 35 hours per week. In accordance with article 2 of this text, which provides for adjustments in the event of arduousness, the city has proposed a weighting of 5%, or 1,530 hours per year for all collection agents, administrative or garbage collectors.
FO threatens to go on strike in turn
What make the unions of garbage collectors jump. “We must measure the seriousness of this proposal, annoys Véronique Dolot, CGT coordinator for collection in the metropolis. This would mean that the rippers would spend 5:42 a day behind their tipper. It’s surreal. It is as if they were offered to jump into a pool full of piranhas! We are still talking about agents whose state of health is already severely affected by their work. “
The FO union, the majority in Marseille, in turn filed a strike notice for Monday evening, 8 p.m. “A strike seems inevitable to me and it is set to be tough,” says Patrick Rué, general secretary of the Force Ouvrière union of territorial agents in Marseille and the metropolis. This Monday evening, it will be more severe. No less than 80% of the trucks will not go out. The skips so far have not come out because the drivers are on strike. But for now, the rest of the staff are there. There, it will be all the staff. And we start from very distant positions between the metropolis and the unions. What transpires for the moment on behalf of the administration does not inspire us confidence. The two unions also evoke a geographical extension of the movement to the whole of the metropolis, the effects of which could be felt as of Monday morning. In a press release sent this Monday morning, the CGT specifies that the strike has reached the municipalities of Istres and Martigues.
Meeting with the metropolis
According to our information, faced with the turn taken by the movement, the metropolis has decided to start first negotiations with the various unions on Monday, just before the entry into force of the FO strike notice. “The staff of the household garbage collection has expressed their demands to the metropolis,” says one on the side of the community. The technical committee held last week marked the first step in social dialogue. The metropolis now wishes to meet all the union training courses to find, through consultation, the best conditions for agents within the framework of the legislation in force. A negotiating calendar has been put in place to achieve this goal. “
But what outcome of such negotiations could they be known, and when, when the different unions do not agree on their objectives? For his part, Patrick Rué claims to have “about fifteen demands”, the main one being “financial compensation” for the increase in working time. “We will have to work more for not a cent more, plague Patrick Rué. But you have to understand that being a garbage collector in Marseille is different from being a garbage collector in Annecy or Evian, which are clean cities! “
Words that annoy the CGT. “We are the only union to have made written proposals, namely a working time of 1,286 hours per year. If FO obtains financial compensation, it will be very good for Marseille, but nothing will be done for the others! “A lack of union unity deplored on both sides and which adds a little more complexity to a situation which is already not really simple …