Garbage collectors’ strike in Toulouse: who are the forgotten ones in the collection?
Garbage collection has been done randomly in the metropolis since the start of the garbage collectors’ strike movement. The effort is focused on the center of Toulouse, to the detriment of other districts and cities of the metropolis.
“We’ve been waiting for this moment for days,” breathes Jacques, a retiree. This Tuesday morning, at around 11 a.m., he observed the truck of a private company advancing slowly towards his house. His trash and those of his neighbors are overflowing. The waste has accumulated in rue Vestrepain, in the Fontaine Lestang district. Like everywhere. Or almost. The garbage collectors’ strike, which began on December 16 to protest against the end of the “finished party”, softens the waste.
Within the city, from street to street, pickup varies. Going from non-existent altogether. “The further away from the city center, the less waste is collected,” says Benoît Fontanilles, spokesperson for the intersyndicale (FO, CGT, FA-FPT, FSU, Solidaires Sud and Unsa). that the Coved or Véolia are called in reinforcement by the Metropolis. The trade unionist indicates that “the agents of the private sector collect in particular the main axes. This allows the Metropolis to try to keep a semblance of a clean city and to avoid the garbage collectors of private companies to make plans of sectors ”. Only a handful of teams leave the metropolitan area’s depots each morning. Sent to town, some peripheral municipalities suffer.
The tipper as a solution?
The collection of waste in Blagnac, north-west of Toulouse, depends on the deposit of Monlong, where 90% of garbage collectors able to work strikers according to the inter-union. Logically, full trash cans accumulate on the sidewalks. The inhabitants no longer know what the organization is. The bins are left on the sidewalks for fear of missing the passage of the garbage collectors, ”says Joseph Carles, the mayor. The councilor continues: “We are not able to provide answers to the requests of our citizens. It is not our responsibility. “
In Pibrac, Toulouse Métropole has made a household waste dumpster available in the parking lot of the old cemetery. It will be the idea of once full between Monday and Friday. This installation allows the municipality to cope with a collection of waste behind. Joseph Carles, in search of the appropriate solution, could well ask Toulouse Métropole so that dumpsters bloom in the districts of his municipality.
Without agreement, the conflict gets bogged down and the waste piles up. Negotiations between the unions and the Metropolis must resume from the start of the school year. For now, the streets continue to present a less polished face than yesterday.