Sawt Falasteen - France to force Paris binmen back to work as trash stacks up

Police chief Laurent Nunez late Wednesday informed mayor Anne Hidalgo -- who sides with the workers -- that the government would use its power to "requisition" striking trash collectors, forcing them back to work under threat of prosecution.

Around 7,600 tonnes of rubbish were piled on the streets of Paris by Wednesday, according to city hall figures.

Government backers and the French right have hammered Hidalgo and the strikers with fears they are endangering public health and disappointing the capital's swarms of tourists.

Workers walked off the job in protest against President Emmanuel Macron's plans to reform the pension system, whose headline measures are raising the retirement age from 62 to 64 and increasing the number of years people must pay in to receive a full pension.

"The demand of Paris rubbish collectors, who don't want to work for two years longer... is fair," Hidalgo said.

"The only answer that could calm the current climate is social dialogue, rather than a test of strength," she added.

Private waste collection company Derichebourg said Wednesday that it would stop filling in for city binmen after it was threatened with pickets on its depots.

Police on Thursday cleared a blockade at another private waste firm, Pizzorno Environnement, allowing its trucks to resume collections in the capital's 15th district and from 150 schools across Paris.

Lawmakers are poised for a knife-edge vote on the draft pensions law on Thursday, with Macron's camp still unsure they can get it over the line.

Rubbish collectors have run one of the few rolling strikes against the proposed changes, where other sectors have held successive one-day walkouts accompanying mass demonstrations.

The hard-left CGT trade union federation claimed 1.7 million people hit the streets nationwide on Wednesday, while the interior ministry's count was 480,000.

Y.Shaath--SF-PST