The Summer of Rage continues in the UK. In many sectors of the economy, employees are mobilizing to demand increases, while inflation exceeds 10%. In the Scottish capital, Edinburgh, in the middle of the international theater festival, garbage collectors have not been picking up trash for a week.
With our correspondent in London, Emeline Wine
Black bags are piled up at the bottom of dumpsters, fast food packaging is strewn on the sidewalks. Heather is sorry to see her town in this state.
In residential areas, it’s still fine, even if the dumpsters are full and there are a few bags in front. On the other hand, in town, it is really serious, the streets are covered with rubbish, the garbage cans vomit. There are rats in places, it smells very bad. It’s quite depressing, Edinburgh is known to be a beautiful city. These days, she’s far from pretty.
Local authorities are concerned about the risk of proliferation of pests. In Scotland, local councils set the salaries of garbage collectors. The local government refuses to interfere, having paid 140 million pounds to local councils.
Wendy Dunsmore, head of mobilizations at the Unite union, interviewed by the BBC.
80% of the local authority budget comes from the Scottish government. The latter must allow municipal councils to divert part of their budget to give us what we are asking for, decent salaries.
Garbage collectors in other Scottish cities, including Glasgow and Aberdeen, are also starting a bin-picking strike.
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