The piles of rubbish on streets of Athens and other big Greek cities is a shame for every civilized country.
On the one hand there is the obvious threat to public health – in conjunction with the weather conditions – and on the other hand there are serious consequences for Greece’s main financial resource: tourism.
Greek government, Greek political system and local officials are to be blamed for showing tolerance to such a situation.
However union leadership of sanitation workers at municipalities are also responsible as they found this problem convenient enough for their aims and they preferred to keep it as it is.
For more than three decades garbage war is being repeated on regular basis, sanitation workers ask to be permanently hired, many of them are hired but immediately succeed to be placed to a more convenient position, creating again a lack of personnel in sanitation services.
Greek government is now facing the consequences of its generous promises before the elections. It must find a solution. Garbage must be collected without further delay.
Unfortunately there is no magic solution. Unionists should understand that acting in an extreme way doesn’t help and Greek government should realise that public health and cities’ normality come first.
TO VIMA
(translated abstract)
