The POE-OTA trade union federation on Thursday voted to end an 11-day strike by contract workers in municipal sanitation services across Greece, during which strikers had barred access to landfills and garbage-truck depots.
The union had demanded the hiring of contract workers whose employment had expired to be hired on a permanent basis, something equivalent to tenured civil servants.
Sanitation crews are now expected to immediately start the difficult job of collecting the mountains of rubbish that have built up over the last few days, especially in major urban centres, even as temperatures in Greece are set to soar.
By most estimates, two to four days of intensified trash collection and disposal will be needed to normalize the situation.
The question of continuing labour action will be revisited at a General Council meeting at a date that has not yet been decided, since no proposal achieved the required absolute majority during Thursday’s vote.
The proposal to end the strike received the greatest support with five votes, while the remaining votes were split between two proposals to continue strike action, one by factions affiliated to the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) and the other affiliated to the Popular Union (LAE) party.
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Photo Source: Wikimedia Commons Copyright: Grzegorz Wysocki License: CC-BY-SA
Source: ANA-MPA
