Rubbish piles up in Paris after week of strike action

Thousands of tonnes of garbage have piled up on streets across the French capital after a week of strike action by dustbin collectors against government pension reforms, city hall said yesterday.
Three incineration plants outside the capital have been hit by the work stoppages that have left entire pavements covered in black bags and overflowing bins.
The capital’s household waste agency Syctom said it has been re-routing dustbin lorries to other storage and treatment sites in the region and has yet to resort to calling in the police.
City hall employees have for the last week been picking up rubbish in just half of Paris’s districts.
The strike has hit some of the most exclusive areas including the 5th, 6th and 16th arrondissements.
Other districts are served by private firms which have not gone on strike.
According to the hard-left CGT union, refuse collectors and drivers can currently retire from 57 years of age, but would face another two years of work under the reform plans which still grant early retirement for those who faced tough working conditions.
Life expectancy for the garbage workers is 12-17 years below the average for the country as a whole, the CGT says.
Out on the streets, student Christophe Mouterde told AFP that the dustbin collectors were among “the first victims of this reform ... often they have started work young ... in a job that’s more difficult than for other people in offices”.
Pastry chef Romain Gaia, who works in the 2nd district where bins are not being collected, said: “It’s terrible, there are rats and mice.”
However, he still offered support for the garbage workers despite the smelly mountains of rubbish nearby.
“They are quite right to strike,” said the 36-year-old. “Normally they have no power, but if they stop work they really have (power).”
The reform’s headline measure and the cornerstone policy of President Emmanuel Macron’s second term in office is a hike in the general minimum retirement age to 64 from 62, seen by many as unfair to people who start working early.
Meanwhile, French unions insist that they will keep on fighting against the pension reform plan despite the upper house of parliament approving the text on Saturday, a leader of one of the main unions said yesterday.
Laurent Berger, secretary-general of France’s largest union the CFDT, also warned Macron’s government against forcing the parliament’s hand by pushing the text through without a vote from MPs of the National Assembly, using a procedure known as 49:3 after the related article in the French constitution.
“Given the mobilisation of the population, the level of opposition to the plan (...) you cannot resort to a democratic flaw by using this 49:3 procedure,” he said on BFM TV. “In my opinion, (using 49:3) would be very dangerous as it risks creating a great degree of bitterness.”
Now that the Senate has passed the pension reform, it will be reviewed by a joint committee of lower and upper house lawmakers, probably on Wednesday.
French unions have called for an eighth round of nationwide demonstrations on that day to keep up the pressure on the government and parliament.
If the committee agrees on a text, both chambers will have a final vote, most likely on Thursday, but the outcome of that still seems uncertain in the lower chamber, where Macron’s party does not have an outright majority.
It needs the support of the conservative Les Republicains party in the National Assembly.
However, some of them have said that they would not approve the text and there are even cracks in the presidential camp, with Macron’s former environment minister Barbara Pompili opposing it.
Even though Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne has repeatedly said she wanted to avoid resorting to the 49:3 procedure to push the reform through, she might have no other option if there is a real risk of not having enough votes.