A private contractor's trucks are expected to roll through the streets of Thessaloniki on Wednesday in order to start removing rubbish from the northern city's streets, as a nearly two-week-long strike by a sanitation workers' union continues throughout the country.
Thessaloniki Mayor Yannis Boutaris signed an emergency tender awarding the relevant short-term contract to the private sector.
Although some municipalities in Greece (primarily smaller holiday isles) already contract with firms for their garbage collection and disposal, most larger municipalities rely on permanent staff or contract workers. Additionally, most landfills are also operated by municipalities and regional government entities.
The directly awarded contract comes after a municipal committee comprised of council members failed to convene, on the one hand, while unionists also occupied the meeting hall where the meeting would be held.
The contract envisions the removal of 1,200 tons of garbage from overflowing trash bins in Thessaloniki municipality over the next 72 hours. Thessaloniki is the largest government entity in the wider Thessaloniki urban area, which is surrounded by several other municipalities.
In a later reaction, representatives of the local chapter of the union (POE-OTA) claimed that garbage collection by the private sector is costlier for the city's taxpayers than when conducted by municipal workers -- assuming, of course, that no strike is in effect.
Back in Athens, a spokesman for the leftist government ruled out the prospect of seeking a court-ordered mobilization of striking sanitation workers. Nevertheless, the spokesman, Dimitris Tzanakopoulos, said all state-affiliated means would be employed to reduce the effects of the nationwide garbage strike. The statement was construed by some as including the use of conscripts and military lorries to dispose of at least some of the rubbish now baking in and round bins amid the first heat wave of the current summer season.
