“Mountain” of garbage in Thessaloniki due to the abstinence of cleaning workers – See photos

Garbage is piling up in the trash cans throughout the municipality of Thessaloniki due to the absence of cleaning workers, who claim -among other things- immediate payment of accrued wages, exempt nights, provision of Personal Protective Equipment, compensation of PPE of past years and personnel restructuring.

The workers at today’s general assembly held in the “Manolis Anagnostakis” hall of the town hall decided to escalate the mobilizations, with a continuation of the refrain from cleaning for Wednesday and Thursday, November 30 and December 1, while for Friday, December 2 , appointed a new general assembly.

In a meeting of the Board of Directors of the workers with the general secretary of the municipality of Thessaloniki, Nikos Liakopoulos, were informed of the commitments of the Zerva administration, with the workers voting in favor of continuing the abstention until written assurances are given.

He referred to the continuation of the mobilizations with his statement the mayor of Thessaloniki, Konstantinos Zervas. “Out of a total of 2300 members of the Employees’ Association of the Municipality of Thessaloniki, 124 voted and decided to leave the country’s second largest city without waste collection for a week. They decided to continue the abstinence, even remaining paid, from the cleaning work until Friday 2/12/2022”.

With reference to their requests, the mayor adds that “the administration of the Municipality of Thessaloniki and I personally have never faced the workers. We have satisfied all their requests concerning the provision of Personal Protective Equipment, the payment of overtime and settled financial outstandings of previous administrations. It is, however, obvious that some – a few – want to serve petty political interests while ignoring the public interest.”

Mr. Zervas emphasizes that every legal means to protect public health and the public interest will be exhausted, saying characteristically: “So far, it has not been enough. Those who believe that small minorities can hold the city hostage and endanger public health are making a fatal mistake. We will exhaust every legal means to protect public health and the public interest.”

On a daily basis, 400 tons of garbage are collected on the streets of the city, as the Deputy Mayor for Cleanliness and Recycling, Kostas Iakovou, told APE-MPE. According to the deputy mayor, in order to clean up the city after the workers’ protests, “it will take at least five working days to collect all these tons that are on the streets and for Thessaloniki to return to its normal flow”.

The president of the Employees’ Association of the Municipality of Thessaloniki, Kostas Fountoukis, stated that “the majority of employees participate in the abstinence. Partial waste collection is being done and will continue to be done. We are at the construction sites, away from our work. We are awaiting the decisions of the administration.”

During the period of abstinence, collection from hospitals and public markets is done normally for reasons of public health protection.

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