Madrid strike goes on, rubbish piles up

Spanish garbage collectors have continued their indefinite strike over the government’s proposed lay-offs and wage cuts.

According to AP, on Saturday, people in the capital Madrid started their fifth day of strike among huge piles of rubbish blocking narrow streets and emitting a foul stench.
After five days of strike, residents are demanding an urgent solution to resolve the crisis.
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. The Spanish government has been sharply criticized over austerity policies that are hitting the middle and working classes the hardest.
Battered by the global financial downturn, the Spanish economy collapsed into recession in the second half of 2008, taking millions of jobs with it.
The country’s official jobless percentage rate hit over 26 percent in the second quarter of 2013.