At the international fresh market in Rungis one may speak of straightforward chaos.
The people responsible for collection of the waste have been on strike since the beginning of July. Rungis, Marché International is the largest covered fresh market in Europe with an area of 232 HA. "Semmaris, the company managing Rungis, have judged this to be a 'wild strike', which was not announced according to the rules and was not accompanied by minimum service" Freddy Dutoit, director of VLAM in France says.
"The reason for the strike is employees of Coved (the subcontractor processing the waste) who did not agree to a new plan of work division. At the moment there is minimum service, but the strike is not over yet. It is not quite clear what will happen now."
The 1,400 wholesalers on the market are, putting it mildly, not happy with the extreme situation. Boxes, crates, rotting fruit and vegetables are lying around everywhere. We are lucky that it is not too warm.