Garbage piles up as strike by collectors enters its 16th day

Garbage. Heaps, mounds and piles of it are growing daily — and in some places standing higher than a human being.

A strike by Paris garbage collectors, in its 16th day on Tuesday, is taking a toll on the renowned aesthetics of the French capital, a veritable blight on the City of Light.

“I prefer Chanel to the stink,” joked Vincent Salazar, a 62-yearold artistic consultant who lives in a tony Left Bank neighborhood. A pile of garbage sits at the corner of his building overlooking the Luxembourg Gardens.

“I’ve seen rats,” he said.

But like many nonchalant and strike-hardened Parisians, Salazar doesn’t mind.

“I’m fortunate to live here, but I’m 200% behind these guys,” Salazar said. “They’re smelling it all day long,” he said, though “it” wasn’t the word he used. “They should get early retirement.”

He is among the majority of French who, polls show, oppose President Emmanuel Macron’s decision to raise the retirement age by two years, from 62 to 64 for most and from 57 to 59 for garbage collectors. Macron rammed the showcase legislation of his second

term through Parliament last week — without a vote, thanks to a special constitutional article. On Monday, the government won two no-confidence motions put forth by angry lawmakers. The bill is now considered adopted.

But garbage got wrapped up in the politics. And neither unions organizing protests nor some citizens are prepared to back down.

Posters showing digitally altered images of Macron atop a garbage heap — or collecting garbage himself — have made the rounds on social networks.

The Socialist mayor of Paris, who supports the strikers, found herself in a bind. City Hall refused orders to get the trucks out, saying it’s not their job. Police Chief Laurent Nunez then ordered garages unblocked and ordered 674 sanitation personnel and 206 garbage trucks back to work to provide a minimal service, police tweeted.

Sure enough, a green Paris garbage truck was seen collecting a long, high pile of rubbish Tuesday outside a school on a Left Bank street — although the truck was full long before all the refuse could be cleaned up. With incinerators blocked, the garbage was being taken to a storage site outside Paris. City Hall said that as of Monday, 9,300 tons of rubbish remained on the streets.

MICHEL EULER/AP A cyclist rides past uncollected garbage next to “The President” cafe in Paris on Tuesday. A strike by Paris garbage collectors, in its 16th day Tuesday, is taking a toll on the aesthetics of the French capital, a veritable blight on the City of Light. A poll shows most in France oppose President Emmanuel Macron’s decision to raise the retirement age by two years.