Paris Trash Strike Ends, Pension Protest Numbers Shrink
TEHRAN (Tasnim) - Sanitation workers in Paris are set to return to work Wednesday amid heaps of trash that piled up over their weekslong strike as protests against French President Emmanuel Marcon’s controversial pension bill appeared to be winding down.
Trash mounds of up to 10,000 tons along the French capital’s streets -matching the weight of the Eiffel Tower- have become a striking visual symbol of opposition to Marcon’s bill raising the retirement age from 62 to 64.
Clean-up crews were set Wednesday to start picking up debris from streets following fresh anti-pension reform protests a day earlier. The powerful CGT union representing sanitation workers said its three-week-long strike was over Wednesday. They will join others who were legally requisitioned to earlier to help with the clean-up, AP reported.
The clean-up, together with the dwindling number of protesters, is seen by some as the beginning of the end of demonstrations against the pension bill.
Tuesday’s protests in Paris saw dozens of arrests and flare-ups of violence, though significantly fewer people participated in the action nationwide.
The Interior Ministry put the number of demonstrators nationwide at 740,000, down from more than 1 million five days ago when protesters voiced their rage at Macron’s order to ram the bill through parliament without a vote.
For unions, the fight against the law is far from over. An eleventh day of action is scheduled for April 6.
