Parisian sanitation workers returned to work Wednesday amid heaps of garbage that piled up over their strike in protest against French President Emmanuel Macron’s unpopular pension bill.
Mounds of trash weighing up to 10,000 tons along the French capital’s streets—reportedly equal to the weight of the Eiffel Tower—have become a striking visual symbol of opposition to Macron’s dictatorial decree raising the retirement age from 62 to 64.
Clean-up crews began to clear the debris from streets following massive fresh protests on Tuesday. The garbage collectors’ suspension of the strike and their return to work is not a surrender to Macron, however.
CGT, the union federation representing sanitation workers, said its three-week-long strike was suspended to allow for more coordination with other workers “so we can go on strike again even more strongly.”
The streets will be cleaned and refuse hauled away as a service of solidarity for the people of Paris, who have stood by in strong support of the strike. Cleaning up the capital will make it easier for upcoming protests to coordinate and navigate the streets.
More than a million people took part in hundreds of demonstrations across France in the latest round of protest on Tuesday.
The CGT said at least 450,000 took to the streets in Paris which saw dozens of arrests as police continued their heavy-handed clampdown on protesters.
Unions insist the fight to have the pensions bill dropped is far from over and they have called for an 11th day of national protests on April 6.
This article originally appeared in Morning Star and has been supplemented with additional information.
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