Trash collection could last a week
The collection of trash from streets in Athens and Thessaloniki could take a week provided that sanitary workers receive their civil mobilization orders and garbage collecting vehicles have enough fuel to run on.
Speaking on Skai Television Thursday, Themis Balasopoulos, president of POE-OTA, the federation of municipal workers? union, noted that while the collection of garbage could last a week, sanitary workers had yet to receive the civil mobilization orders issued by the Greek government.
According to certain estimates, about 120,000 tons of trash have piled up as a result of the sanitation workers strike.
The government began issuing civil mobilization orders on Tuesday and some 7,000 orders were expected to be issued for Athens sanitation workers by Thursday.
Meanwhile, Balasopoulos said that his assessment was based on sanitation workers schedules. He also noted that the collection would be feasible provided that vehicles had enough fuel, given the ongoing strike by costums officials.
The process of dispatching mobilization orders to sanitation workers is a complex one, given that papers are initially issued by the Attica Regional Authority before being delivered to the various Attica municipalities which in turn deliver them to municipal workers.
Balasopoulos said that the only mobilization orders that had been dispatched so far had been issued by Greek police and were addressed to municipalities regarding the mobilization of garbage collecting trucks. Given that many municipalities were on strike, however, very few of these orders had actually been delivered.
