The trouble with proclaiming 'victory' over the crisis in Spain (read the whole of Europe) and the ECB enabling governments profligacy with the ghost of OMT future is that it merely emboldens. As Al Jazeera reports [4], Madrid's garbage collectors have been on strike since November 5 to protest layoffs and pay cuts. With garbage piling up on the streets of Madrid, the mayor issued private trash-collecting companies an ultimatum on Wednesday: end the street cleaners' strike or lose their contracts. More than 30,000 residents have signed a petition to the defense minister asking for the streets to be cleaned. The following images show the chaos...
Madrid bins overflowing in the streets...
Fotografía que han sacado esta tarde en Madrid, donde comienza una huelga indefinida de barrenderos y jardineros. pic.twitter.com/0ZwmKldti3 [5]
— Alberto Garzón (@agarzon) November 4, 2013 [6]
Translation: Worker for the Madrid garbage collectors yesterday in Madrid protesting against layoffs.
Trabajador de @BasurerosMadrid [7] ayer en #Madrid [8] en protesta contra los despidos @CGT [9] @democraciareal [10] @SocialcumbreS [11] pic.twitter.com/BuM3tlQiJG [12]
— Florent (@frlorente) November 5, 2013 [13]
Some expressed their frustration with the strike:
Translation: The Madrid Cleaning Strike shouldn't be called a strike; it's vandalism and crime. This is how you lose the argument.
#HuelgaLimpiezaMadrid [14] no deberian llamar huelga a lo que es vandalismo y delincuencia.Asi es como pierden la razon. pic.twitter.com/UOk05rxcDz [15]
— Nicolás Martínez (@nicomarbel) November 10, 2013 [16]
Translation: This Madrid Cleaning Strike is lamentable and like the Third World.
Esto es lamentable y tercermundista #HuelgaLimpiezaMadrid [14] pic.twitter.com/mu7JSHd9Df [17]
— Berenice Flocco (@FloccoBerenis) November 13, 2013 [18]
Los trabajadores de basura #Madrid [8] se concentran en #Cibeles [19]. Y están dispuestos a iniciar huelga de hambre pic.twitter.com/LZpI3jGnfJ [20]
— Desiree Hernandez (@desihdzleon) November 15, 2013 [21]
Seems to us that this might be a great opportunity to put some of the record high unemployed youth back to work... (though one wonders just how big the disincentive to work is in Spain...)