Trash strike piles on misery

Street cleaners extend protest; 40,000 tons of rubbish mounts up in Athens

Rubbish collectors refused to go back to work yesterday, extending their strike for the 10th straight day, as some municipal authorities took steps to reduce the public health risk from the tons of rotting trash gathering on sidewalks.

The municipal workers, who are pushing for higher salaries and improved benefits, said they will strike for another 24 hours after meeting yesterday.

In an indication that they may have reached a dead end, the union asked the public servants' union, ADEDY, to intervene and help them find a solution.

More than 40,000 tons of trash are estimated to have accumulated on Athenian streets, with rubbish piles in many areas spilling onto sidewalks and covering parking spaces. Other cities and towns around Greece have been experiencing similar problems.

Athens Mayor Theodoros Behrakis told Kathimerini that city employees have started returning to work and have helped clean up about 60 percent of the trash on the capital's streets.

The mayor said the sheer size of the accumulated trash has slowed down the collection process.

«If we estimate that garbage trucks previously needed four minutes per stop... now, with the current volumes, we need up to 40 minutes,» he said, adding that this means more overtime pay.

The overtime is expected to cost the City of Athens about 200,000 euros.

Although central parts of the city have been cleaned up - with a priority given to areas outside of schools and hospitals - serious problems remain elsewhere.

The Municipality of Holargos in northeast Athens has hired a private company to clean up its streets while authorities in Thessaloniki warned residents about the lingering public health risk.

The government repeated its offer of discussing worker demands over the next two months by setting up a committee to examine their requests.

«The union, instead of coming forth to a dialogue, has preferred the strike and the extension of the strike,» said Interior Minister Prokopis Pavlopoulos.