10,000 tons of trash piled up in Paris amid sanitation workers strike
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Trash is still piling up in Paris, with sanitation workers still striking as the government faces more and more backlash over the pension reform law.
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A man walks past uncollected garbages in Paris, Friday March 17, 2023 (AP)
More than 10,000 tons of garbage have piled up in the streets of the French capital of Paris amid sanitation workers' strike in protest of the controversial pension reform, French media reported Friday, citing the Paris mayor's office.
The authorities have tried to force workers to go back to work, but to no avail, as the strike is ongoing with demands for the authorities to make a U-turn on their bids to increase the retirement age.
The symbolic milestone of 10,000 tons of uncollected garbage on the streets of the French capital was reached on Friday afternoon and made headlines all over the country, all the while attracting rats and dismaying tourists.
Furthermore, the prefecture authorities warned of growing volumes of trash in the city of lights, highlighting that such a pile-up could increase sanity risks for the residents, as well as act as a catalyst for the spread of various diseases, the French Le Figaro newspaper reported.
The cleaners' strike against the pension reform has been ongoing for 10 days after it was initially set to last a week before being extended at least until March 20 as the authorities are still standing their ground on the controversial legislation.
The French government asked on Wednesday Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo to order street cleaners to stop protesting against the pension reform and resume their work. However, Hidalgo refused the government's request, arguing that the workers had the right to protest.
The one way forward is launching public dialogue instead of forcing striking workers to resume work, hidalgo stressed.
"This [pension reform] text, created without the participation of employee rights organizations, is especially unfair to people doing the hard work. The demands of the Paris cleaners, who quite legitimately do not want to work two years longer and are protesting it, are fair," Hidalgo tweeted.
Understanding the pension reform
The pension reform bill being championed by the government in France is aimed at balancing the country's pension financial system without having to raise taxes, government spokesperson Olivier Veran said Wednesday.
The bill provides for gradually increasing the national retirement age from 62 to 64 years and canceling special regimes for numerous professions that require hard labor, drawing the ire of the French people and sparking a wave of demonstrations that took France by storm.
Furthermore, the government spokesperson stressed that the retirement age was being raised so that Paris could "look the French people in the eye in five, 10, 15 years" and tell them their pension contributions and the pension system would guarantee them "decent income" in retirement.
Increasing backlash
In light of all the backlash, French President Emmanuel Macron on Friday faced intensified protests and accusations of anti-democratic behavior after pushing through a contentious pension reform without a parliamentary vote.
Using a special constitutional power to pass legislation without a vote amounted to an admission that the government lacked a majority to hike the retirement age from 62 to 64, a change that has met strong resistance across the country.
Jean-Luc Melenchon, the founder and leader of the left-wing party La France Insoumise, said the pension reform is null and void as it lacks support from both lawmakers and citizens.
Moreover, trade unions and political analysts had warned that adopting the legislation without a vote - by invoking article 49.3 of the constitution - would undercut the law's democratic legitimacy.
"It's a total failure for the government," far-right leader Marine Le Pen told reporters. "From the beginning, the government fooled itself into thinking it had a majority."
