French protests yield smelly results

But for Houache, who has lived in Marseille for 40 years, the behavior of the locals, the fact that many did not seem bothered by the trash and made no effort to clean it up, does not surprise her.

Originally from Lyon, Houache described the Marseille locals as je-m’en-fous-ists, literally, I-don’t-give-a-damn-ers, and said she lives here because of the ocean, not the people.

Across France, stereotypes about people from Marseilles abound, and for many, the events of the past month have only reinforced notions that locals are lazy, can’t be trusted and wreak havoc irresponsibly.

Laurence Jourdan, the manager of a post office in the 1st arrondissement where the trash problem was worst, said she sees behavior like this every year in Marseille.

“People are always confronting each other. Each one takes his position and it’s difficult to find a solution,” she said.

Jordan, who worked for the postal service in Paris for 11 years before coming to Marseille, said she notices a lack of motivation in the Marseille workforce.

“They are ‘cool’ in the negative sense of the term,” she said.

Some call it cool, but others call it spoiled.

“They want the butter, and the money for the butter,” said the owner of a pastry and tea shop along the Canabière.

Although rubbish cluttered the entrance to his shop, it was still open for business, but a bakery across the street was closed, due to a 10-foot pile of debris completely blocking the doors.

“Things will balance themselves out but the first thing the strike will touch is the economy of the country,” said the 60-year-old shop owner, who did not give his name, but said these are the worst protests he has seen since the 1968 protests in Paris.

La Provence, the largest newspaper in the Marseille region, said downtown businesses reported a 25 to 50 percent drop in revenue during the strikes.

“We should never think of reliving such a conflict when we have fought for so many years to attract city-goers to the hypercenter of Marseille,” said Laurent Vandamme, president of Marseille Centre, the chamber of commerce of the city center, to La Provence.

Laurent Carratu, president de Terres de Commerces, another association of Marseille businesses, said the strike damaged the future of the neighborhood.

“For me, they are not union members, they are inhibitors,” Carratu told La Provence.

Marseille is also home to three large universities and many more smaller colleges, and over 30,000 students.

Quentin Lootvout, 22, of Lille, France, is a student of business administration in Marseille.

“If we have too many strikes, there will lose their effect,” Lootvout said.

He said workers should do something less detrimental to the city to convey their message.

“One has perhaps the right to express himself, but not the right to destroy.”

Lootvout pointed out that although garbage collectors can be replaced, the health risks that the trash imposes threaten the entire population.

Lootvout spoke of the “stronghold, the huge base of unions” in Marseille, and the hotheaded mentality of the union members.

“It’s always the same people who strike,” he said, noting city’s maintenance and transportation workers in particular.

And this behavior is criticized by more than just students.

While union leaders claimed to be striking against the national retirement reform, in the end, Marseille’s standstill boiled down to a brawl between local unions who have a history of disagreement.

“The 10,000 tons of trash abandoned in the roads…have revealed once again the chronic incapacity of this town to manage its waste,” wrote Lilian Renard, in an op-ed in La Provence.

Renard blamed Eugène Caselli, the leader of Marseille Provence Metropole, the organization in charge of the city’s urban affairs, for taking the French tradition of striking and using it as a political tool to strengthen the power of unions in Marseille.

“It’s what Eugène Caselli has done, resigned himself to follow an ancestral tradition, wanting each social movement to settle itself at the table of the leading union, stop feeding the monster that will reawaken, more powerful, at the next conflict,” she wrote.

When Force Ouvrère, the leading union of garbage collectors, finally did return to work, its leaders cited said the city’s safety was the only reason they returned to work. They denied health risks and insisted their strike was solely in opposition to Sarkozy’s reform, rather than a local political squabble.

“We are still on complete strike to denounce the retirement reform and we will protest in Thursday’s manifestation,” Claude Argy said on Monday.

And true to his word, on Thursday members of Force Ouvrière were with other protesters who filled Marseille’s seaside boulevards yet again to wave flags and banners against the reform that the government claims is necessary to support France’s empty bank account and growing population of healthy old people.

Police estimated there were 12,000 protesters at Thursday’s manifestation, but as normal, union leaders set their estimate noticeably higher, and said 150,000 people protested the retirement reform.

The owner of the downtown pastry shop said he understands both sides of the argument.

“The money box is a little empty and it’s necessary to do something… but it’s necessary to arrive at any solution, one or the other,” he said, rather than let the city deteriorate amid a political gridlock.

And even though Jourdan, the Marseille post office worker, fears for her own retirement, she said the stubbornness in Marseille produces the opposite effect of the better quality of life they are striking for.

“It can affect anyone. The town is dirty, and there is the risk of fire. It’s basically the inverse…and it snowballs” she said.

Jourdan said she is also worried about the future of the French retirement system.

“We are concerned, but (if this reform is unsuccessful) there will be another reform,” she said.

“It’s necessary to have a moment when you say ‘stop.’”