Greece cleans up after garbage strike

Council garbage collectors across Greece ended their two week strike on Thursday, which was initially triggered by a job dispute with the Greek government involving the rehiring of contract workers whose employment status has expired.

According to authorities it is expected that it will take nearly a week to remove the mountains of garbage that have accumulated over the two week period.

Union organisers POE-OTA representing the workers had met with the Greek PM on Tuesday but were unsatisfied by his proposals, resulting to the garbage strike continuing till Thursday.

Some 1000 garbage collectors marched through central Athens on Thursday and demanded an end to short-term labour contracts before calling an end to the strike.

Greece’s tourism authorities had criticised the strike for endangering the economy, reputation and public health of the country with Tourism Minister Elena Kountoura saying the sector would suffer “bad consequences” if the strike continued.

“All of this is at the expense of tourism, which is on a growth course with 90 percent of Greece booked for the summer. We have no cancellations, but if this continues we will have bad consequences,” she said during a radio interview.

The strike was coinciding with a heat wave in Greece and authorities warned that the industrial action was endangering public health and also damaging the country’s image.