Valorsul’s binmen refused to remove rubbish from bins on Monday morning,
followed by a 32-hour strike starting Tuesday and lasting until Wednesday morning, leaving piles of refuse mounting.
In a bid to minimise the impact of waste being left unattended, Lisbon Council issued an appeal for the city’s inhabitants “to not put their refuse out for collection.”
Valorsul serves 19 municipalities in the Greater and Western Lisbon areas,including Amadora, Caldas da Rainha, Lisbon, Loures, Nazaré, Óbidos, Odivelas, Peniche, Torres Vedras and Vila Franca de Xira.
In a statement, Valorsul workers explained that during a recent Workers’ Committee meeting, the administration “confirmed it does not intend to start negotiations on revising the salary table or other matters relating to the Company Accord for 2016.”
The binmen are demanding administration respects their “right to collective bargaining, a rise in salaries – which have not been updated since 2009 – as well as a fair distribution of wealth that is generated with their commitment, effort and dedication.”
In their statement, the workers further accuse the administration of “unilaterally making various decisions that jeopardise workers’ rights.”
These, the binmen state, include the “imposition of a meal card, the regulation of performance evaluation, the handing over of the ordinance of the Centre for Waste Separation and Ecocentre (CTE) in Lumiar to external companies”, and alterations to transport to and from waste disposal centres.
According to the collectors, these measures have been put forward by the administration “as management measures.
“The trade union committee and the workers have done everything they can to overcome this situation, suggesting several alternatives, but the company has not changed its intransigent position.”
Speaking at the beginning of this week, Mário Matos, a representative of the Valorsul trade union committee, predicted that adherence to the strike action would be “almost total.”
He stressed the action had nothing to do with the arrival of private entities within the Loures-based company’s management.
“They are different battles”, he said: “At the moment the focus of the workers is solely on the compliance of the Company Accord.”