Sell the rubbish
At last, Kathimerini’s editorial («Hostage to Garbage,» March 9) was a breath of fresh air in the stinky atmosphere to which the mayor of Athens has condemned the citizens of «the cleanest city in Europe,» as he bragged a short time ago. The mayor undoubtedly placed a tombstone on his ambitions as a party leader. The point, however, is not this. It is the disregard of the court’s ruling by the strikers and the dereliction of duty by officials. Once the strikers disobeyed the ruling of the courts as to the legality of their strike, their leaders should have been arrested for contempt of court and the city officials should have been indicted for dereliction of their duty. Political games, as the editorial correctly names the mayor’s behavior, are criminal acts when the health of the people and the image of the country are at stake. Privatization of garbage collection is the only solution, as the editorial correctly states. But privatization cannot happen if the employees of the company to be privatized determine the rules of the game. Their legal rights must be safeguarded but they must have no voice in the negotiations. One may mention that the reason the efforts by the government to privatize various public utilities lead nowhere is that it insists on maintaining managerial control and the unions dictate the terms. And though the Games were held in the USA, the judges were still foreigners from all around the world. So why would there be favoritism (considering how in vogue anti-Americanism is these days, you’d expect the opposite)?
