The Paris City Council reported that 16 percent of the city's rubbish collectors, or one in six, were on strike. The Parisian rubbish collectors had already warned that they might strike during the summer, which would be a major problem if it happened during the Olympics (26 July to 11 August). 

Mountains of rubbish baking in the sun for days on end, while top athletes and the eyes of the world are focused on Paris? The glory of France would be seriously undermined. The rubbish collectors, like other workers, know this, and so does the government. For the workers, it's now or never if they want to use the power of the Games and international public opinion to press for better working conditions. For the government, it could border on blackmail, whether the demands are justified or not.

Meeting 100% of one sector's demands will create a "domino effect", with other problematic areas using the same pressure tactics to gain sectoral benefits. The government knows this, but it cannot ignore the demands of a sector as important and as powerful as waste collection.

The precision of the negotiations will undoubtedly determine the success of a large part of the Games for the organisers, namely: to present themselves to the world as a power capable of organising the best Olympic Games in history (the maximum objective), or at least to achieve the minimum objective of surpassing London as the best Olympic Games of the century in European countries.

"There was little impact on collection services today," a city council official told AFP, without giving further details of Tuesday's strike in the French capital.

The Confédération générale du travail (CGT), which represents garbage collectors, announced a "strong" mobilisation and said that between 70 and 90 per cent of the workers, depending on the district ("arrondissement") of the capital, had walked out. The CGT also said that around 400 striking workers had "occupied" the building housing the city council's human resources department on Tuesday morning.

The city council put the number at 100, playing down the conflict and the strength of the CGT, and also claimed that everything had ended by midday. The CGT had warned that the strikes would take place on several days in May and continue from 1 July to 8 September (a period during which not only the Olympic Games but also the Paralympic Games will be held, from 28 August to 8 September).

Garbage collectors in the Paris region are demanding an increase of 400 euros a month and a one-off bonus of 1,900 euros for those working during the Olympics, when French workers traditionally take their summer holidays. The mayor's office had previously told AFP that it would extend to rubbish collectors the bonuses of between €600 and €1,900 already announced for workers involved in the Olympics.

The mayor of Paris' 17th district, Geoffroy Boulard, called the strike "irresponsible". "Taking hostage not only Parisians but also tourists and visitors is also an attack on France's image in the world," he said on Tuesday.

In March last year, a three-week strike by rubbish collectors against President Emmanuel Macron's unpopular pension reform saw more than 10,000 tonnes of rubbish piling up on the streets of Paris at its height.

The images were seen around the world, images that the French government is trying to avoid repeating, but without making too many concessions that could lead to similar wage demands in other sectors.