Trash goes, words fly
Ending a six-day strike that had left over 12,000 tons of rotting rubbish ungathered on the streets of Athens, municipal garbage collectors decided on Saturday to postpone further action until the Easter holidays. Meanwhile, the city council and the government traded insults over who was to blame for the mess. Defying a court ban on Monday, rubbish collectors had vowed to persist until their demands – mainly permanent work status for 250 workers on short-term contracts – were met. They were encouraged by the municipal council, which ruled out disciplinary action against the strikers, despite Monday’s court decision. During an emergency session of the city council earlier on Saturday – during which demonstrating strikers blocked Athinas Street outside the Town Hall – Athens Mayor Dimitris Avramopoulos reaffirmed his support for the strikers’ demands but called on them to return to work. This followed an Athens prosecutor’s launching on Friday of an investigation into whether the municipal authorities and the strikers should be prosecuted. The workers’ union decided to postpone their strike until May 5 – Easter Sunday. In the meantime, they will seek meetings with Interior Ministry officials. Avramopoulos stepped up his criticism of Interior Minister Costas Skandalidis, who is responsible for public sector and local authority hirings, during Saturday’s council meeting, calling him «irresponsible, indifferent and politically fainthearted.» The 50-year-old former diplomat leads Greece’s small Movement of Free Citizens (KEP) party. «The Interior Ministry is uniquely responsible for the problem,» he said, drawing fire from pro-government council members who accused him of manipulating the strikers for his own political gain. They also claimed Avramopoulos had hired 300 more contract workers three months ago, and had not yet given them work. Yesterday, Skandalidis, who argues that the Constitution bars the granting of permanent work status to contract employees, said Avramopoulos «continuously avoids the issue and transfers his responsibilities elsewhere.» On Friday, Skandalidis had adjured Avramopoulos to either use the 2,000 full-time municipal workers – who, although not officially on strike are not working either – to attack the rubbish mounds, or consider handing the job to private contractors.
