Garbage collectors slowly let up

The slow process of collecting thousands of tons of garbage that have accumulated on the streets of the capital over the past three weeks got under way on Friday after protesting municipal street cleaners indicated that they would return to work if the government retracts an emergency order obliging them to stop their industrial action.

In what appeared to be a face-saving exercise, the civil servants? union, ADEDY, asked Athens Mayor Giorgos Kaminis to mediate between the Federation of Municipal Workers? Unions, POE-OTA, and central government to break the deadlock so that some 10,000 tons of trash that have built up on the streets of the capital can be cleared.

According to a statement issued by the City of Athens, the cleanup began on Friday with 500 of the 1,600 municipal street cleaners turning up for work.

In Piraeus and Thessaloniki there were no such initiatives and thousands of tons of trash continued to fester on the streets. Local sources said that garbage collectors had yet to receive the civil mobilization orders issued by the government earlier in the week.

Municipal offices in Piraeus and Thessaloniki remained under occupation by protesting workers on Friday, hampering the process.

Thessaloniki Mayor Yiannis Boutaris said the cleanup of 6,000 tons of trash from the streets of the northern port would begin one way or another. ?Either the union will suspend its action or the civil mobilization orders will be implemented,? he said.