South Florida Sun-Sentinel (Sunday)
Outside climate summit, trash in Glasgow piled high
GLASGOW, Scotland — In Gaelic, “Glasgow” translates to “dear green place,” a nod to the parks, gardens and flourishing green spaces throughout the city. But according to Chris Mitchell, who was a garbage collector there for more than two decades, the only thing flourishing in Glasgow these days is “a mountain of waste.”
As diplomats at the U.N. climate summit in Glasgow last week preached about the need to curb both greenhouse gas emissions and mass consumption to protect the planet, the reality of today’s throwaway society could be seen just a short way from the conference’s doorstep.
Outside the gleaming center of Scotland’s largest city, dumpsters and trash cans are overflowing. The city’s rat population has surged, with four garbage workers hospitalized because of attacks over the past five months. And litter is strewn across streets.
Mitchell, a senior official for the GMB Scotland trade union, which represents the city’s 1,000 garbage collectors among other workers, said they staged an eight-day strike that ended Monday because they were tired of poor working conditions, lack of respect from management and low wages.
It is a cry that has been echoed throughout Britain, the United States and other parts of the world, where essential workers who carried communities through the worst of the pandemic are saying they will no longer stand for being overworked and underpaid.
“We kept people safe,” said Mitchell, 45, who started working as a garbage collector when he was 16. “We cared for the most vulnerable. We cared for the elderly.” He appreciated the nightly clap for key workers during the pandemic. But now that coronavirus cases have subsided from peak levels, he feels the government has “abandoned low paid workers who have saved this nation.”
In parts of the city, trash is now collected only once every three weeks, down from once every two weeks about a year ago. That means garbage collectors, many of whom make less than $27,000 a year, have to carry heavier loads up and down steps.
The city of about 635,000 has urged residents to reduce their waste to help protect the environment, but garbage collectors like Jack McGowan, 26, say that reducing collections is not an effective way to achieve that.
McGowan said he lives with his mother because he cannot afford a mortgage on his salary of 19,000 pounds, or about $26,000, a year.
Garbage collectors said they were likely to strike again in the run-up to Christmas if they do not get pay rises. In a statement, the Glasgow City Council said that the leader of the council had already had extensive conversations with the union and that the “door remains open to all trade union colleagues.”
Mitchell, the senior union official, said that 20 drivers had left the garbage collection team in recent weeks for other truck driving jobs that are offering better pay.