Garbage cans are overflowing in Toulouse, and this should last until the beginning of January
Negotiations between the garbage collectors’ unions and Toulouse Métropole are not progressing. Most of the collection agents are on strike. In the absence of an agreement, the movement could continue until the beginning of January.
Waste accumulates in the streets of Toulouse. Since Tuesday, December 15, the strike movement of garbage collectors has persisted, while negotiations with Toulouse Métropole have stalled. No agreement between the collection agents and the community comes to fruition. Result: 90% of garbage collectors “able to work“will be on strike this Monday, December 27, according to the intersyndicale.
“Toulouse Métropole did not respond to our maintenance requests. We don’t have an answer. The strike continuesc “, declares Benoît Fontanilles, spokesperson for the FA-FPT union.
The Toulouse Métropole garbage collectors have been protesting since mid-December against the end of the “finished party”. This practice, linked to the law on the transformation of the civil service, allows agents to return home once collection is complete. With this regime, they worked an average of 25 hours. The end of this system therefore forced the garbage collectors to work 1,607 hours per year, or 35 hours per week.
Since the last meeting between the intersyndicale des garbage collectors and the community, the abandonment of the “finished job” has been recorded. But in return, collection agents ask for daily recognition of the difficulty of their profession.
“The garbage collectors do the most physically difficult job of the territorial public service. We ask for a daily hardship rate. The administration refuses us.
Benoît Fontanilles, spokesperson for the FA-FPT union
The union is also demanding an increase in the quality premium to 600 euros. Toulouse Metropolis “would increase it to 150 euros”.
“The agents and the inter-union had left for 74 days, then it went down to 30 and I understand that today they are claiming between 15 and 20 days“, Explain Vincent Terrail-Noves, in charge circular economy, waste and cleanliness in the Metropolis. “In the community of Toulouse, the agents who have the highest compensation in relation to the arduousness of their work, it is the municipal police with 11 days“, continues the elected. And it is not really question of granting more to the agents of collection.
We have to agree on a number of days, but which must be close enough to that of the municipal police so that there is no unfairness in the treatment of Toulouse agents. Metropolis.
Vincent Terrail-Noves, elected in charge of waste and cleanliness at Toulouse Métropole
Dialogue impossible under these conditions? The Toulouse Metropolis affirms that its door remains open, and envisages discussions during the first week of January. However, the community recalls that there is also “other compensation on remunerations and recoveries, which take into account the arduousness“the work of the garbage collectors.
This strike is not without consequences for Toulouse residents: garbage cans are piling up in the streets of the pink city.
For residents, the situation is becoming worrying. “This is very damaging for the quality of the city of Toulouse. I’m afraid the rats will arrive, it would be dangerous because they are vectors of disease“, says a passer-by.
No negotiation meeting is scheduled for the next few days. The conflict is expected to last until early January.