Madrid workers continue indefinite strike

Rubbish is piling up on the streets of the Spanish capital Madrid as the city’s street sweepers, as well as public park and garden workers continue their indefinite strike over proposed layoffs and wage cuts.

Plastic bags, bottles, boxes, food remains and autumn leaves littered the streets of Madrid, a city of 3.2 million people, on the seventh day of the strike on Monday.

“There is a massive following. This conflict will go on for a while. There are no talks,” said Juan Carlos del Rio, a spokesman for the UGT, one of Spain’s biggest labor unions.

Unions are angered over plans by private companies that provide cleaners for the city’s streets and public gardens to slash the employees’ salaries by up to 40 percent and lay off 1,135 people.

They have called on the city council, run by former Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar’s wife Ana Botella, to intervene and stop the job cuts.

Spain has implemented deep spending cuts in its public services sector in an effort to cope with one of the eurozone’s highest public deficits.

Cuts to health, security, and education budgets began at the end of 2011. Since then high taxes and fees for services such as universities and water were also proposed in some regions.

Moreover, in December last year Spanish lawmakers voted for further cuts in the 2013 budget, which slashes spending for transportation and reduces pensions among other tough measures.

The Spanish government has been sharply criticized over austerity policies that are hitting the middle and working classes the hardest.

However, the government has remained adamant, saying the austerity measures are needed to carry it through the crisis.

Europe plunged into financial crisis in early 2008. Insolvency now threatens heavily debt-ridden countries such as Greece, Portugal, Italy, Ireland, and Spain.

The worsening debt crisis has forced EU governments to adopt harsh austerity measures and tough economic reforms, which have triggered massive demonstrations in many European countries.