The cloth is burning between the garbage collectors of Toulouse Métropole, on strike since December 16, and Jean-Luc Moudenc, president of the agglomeration. To enforce the law, the 600 collection officers must work 35 hours a week, instead of the current 25. The garbage collectors have accepted the end of the “finished party”, which allowed them to return home at the end of their tour, but are demanding compensation for leave, up to 34 days. After several meetings, the Metropolis proposed nine.
“Two more hours of work every day”
“The end of the finished party is equivalent to around 70 additional days of presence over the year, which entails almost two more hours of work per day,” explains Nicolas Refutin, secretary general of FO in the metropolis and member of the inter-union of garbage collectors (FO, CGT, FA-FPT, FSU, Solidaires Sud and Unsa). Jean-Luc Moudenc gave as a reference the compensation of the municipal police officers who were entitled to 11 days of leave but the application of the law involves for them 1h10 more work per week. We are open to negotiations and we will not give in to threats from the president. “
The threat of privatization
On January 5, during his greetings to the press, Jean-Luc Moudenc assured that the proposals of his community to the garbage collectors had remained dead letters. Faced with the accumulation of trash in the streets, he brandished the threat of privatization of collection. “Citizens ask me to entrust this service to a private company, so I ask the strikers: Do they want the household waste collection service to be entrusted to one or more private companies? “, did he declare. After blocking two of the city’s six depots on January 5, the strikers promise new blockades next week to amplify the movement.
