On the second day of the total garbage collection strike in Lisbon, the situation worsened. However, the municipality’s urban hygiene director says the scenario could be much worse. Pedro Moutinho appeals to people not to recycle.
The arbitration college of the General Directorate of Administration and Public Employment (DGAEP) decreed minimum services for the strike in the urban hygiene area in Lisboncalled by the Lisbon Municipal Workers’ Union (STML) and the National Local Administration Workers’ Union (STAL), between Christmas and New Year.
This Friday morning, the STML placed adherence to the strike at 60%, justifying the drop – on Thursday it reached 80% – with the introduction of minimum services, which it considers disproportionate and for which it presented a precautionary measure, which still awaiting court decision.
“We are managing to extract a lot, but rubbish continues to accumulate”, reported the municipality’s director of urban hygiene, speaking to Lusa.
“The pressure is great”, said Pedro Moutinho, repeating the appeal to Lisbon residents to do not deposit selective waste (glass, packaging, paper) in recycling bins.
According to the STML, the minimum services enacted are ensuring around half of the usual collection circuits.
Pedro Moutinho also said he hopes that the end of the total strike – the strike in the coming days and until January 2nd will be limited to overtime work only – will “relieve some of the pressure” and allow “recovering what has been accumulated” in a municipality where they are collected 900 tons of garbage per day.
The Chamber is making every effort to minimize the impact caused by the Urban Hygiene workers’ strike.
We count on everyone!— Lisbon (@CamaraLisboa)
What workers demand
The unions justify carrying out the strike with the lack of responses from the municipal executive, led by Carlos Moedas, to the problems affecting the urban hygiene sector, in particular compliance with the agreement signed in 2023, which provides, for example, for works and interventions on the premises.
According to STML data, 45.2% of the vehicles essential for removal are inoperable, 22.6% of the workforce is physically reduced or on leave due to work accidents and there is a shortage of 208 workers.
The Lisbon Chamber guaranteed that 13 of the 15 main points of the agreement signed in 2023 are being fulfilled.
The remaining two – works on facilities ea opening of bars at all times and in all units – are nearing completion, he told Lusa.
To minimize the effects of the protest, the municipality decided to implement a set of measures, namely creating a crisis management team, available 24 hours a day; distribute construction dumpsters, in various regions of the city, for garbage disposal; ask citizens not to place trash on the street, especially paper and cardboard; call on large producers to collect during these days; and request the collaboration of neighboring municipalities, with the possibility of using mobile eco-islands.
The strike called by STAL extended, this Thursday and Friday, to the urban waste sector in the neighboring municipality of Oeiras and to several municipalities in the North region.
