Jerez is burning
 

The rubbish collection workers in Jerez de la Frontera are on strike because the private firm that employs them, Urbaser, is planning to sack 30% of the workforce. This is the result of Jerez Ayuntamiento cutting Urbasur's contract by 20%; Urbasur are passing the entire amount of the cuts onto their employees.

Rubbish hasn't been collected for 20 days (except for schools and hospitals) and there are 3,000 tonnes of it in the streets. Local people have been setting fire to containers as a protest, and the fire services are struggling to cope.

http://img.irtve.es/imagenes/nueva-j...3463676320.jpg

http://www.abcdesevilla.es/Media/201...a--644x362.jpg

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http://www.20thcenturylondon.org.uk/mol-hg2753-39


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El País has a superb article on Jerez.

“Anybody working in the public sector - or for a company that depends on the public sector - is either on strike, has been on strike, or is likely to be very soon. From one month to the next they have no idea whether they will be paid, or even if they will be left with a job”

http://elpais.com/elpais/2012/11/21/...14_212572.html

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It's tragic - such a beautiful city, lots of very wealthy people live there, the moto racing and sherry bodegas bring in loads of tourists, and yet there are little boys trapping birds for their mothers to feed them with.

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I'll be honest, I've clicked on the link three times now and I'm just not sure why you posted it.

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I was chatting to a mate about Spain the other day, he is completely anti Strike and he knows my feelings about strike action in the UK but I just could not condemn the Spanish for their strike actions at the moment, here in the UK we have a well built safety net, many in Spain, Portugal, Italy and Greece simply don't have it! My old man was right, the older I get the more Socialist I become!

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Tragic it surely is and unbelievable it could have been left long enough to get into such a state without someone in authority taking drastic action.
Surely a serious public health risk as well, though just as well it's not mid-summer.
Maybe time to call in the military. They have their own mechanical shovels and trucks or else could commandeer the basura fleet which is obviously just standing idle.
After all, it surely is an emergency situation.

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But the military would have to be paid to do it, surely? The government would just send the bill to the ayuntamiento, and add to their debt!

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They must surely be on a wage of some sort already plus their keep, though I believe it's the case with the UK Military to give them extra when dealing with difficult situations mainly in unstable areas of the world, but I haven't a clue if the Spanish do likewise.
I recall the UK millitary were on standby during the firemens strike quite a few years ago, though I can't recall if they were actually used.

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Me too.

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Some frightening, shocking statistics there.
If that is the way Spain is heading as El Pais suggests, then it's on the way to being a third world country.
It's going to need massive EU funding to pull things around which it's unlikely ever to be able to repay and could well bring down the whole dodgy EU house of cards on it's own, regardless what happens elsewhere.

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Only whilst on operational deployments (i.e Iraq, Afghanistan etc)are the military paid any extra (in the form of an Operational Allowance), not whilst deployed on assistance such as; the Foot & Mouth Disease outbreak in 2001, the national fire strike in 2002-03, the Cumbria floods in 2005 and 2009, Yorkshire and Gloucestershire in 2007, and the 'Big Freeze' in 2010, these are all "just" helping out.....


Yes they were, in 2002, some units had post operational leave (POTL) cancelled after six months in Bosnia to cover for the fire strike (we also covered for the fire strike in 1977!).

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Let's hope nobody needs a neurologist, looks like most will be packing up and leaving.
http://www.20minutos.es/noticia/1654...isis-recortes/

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So the old Green Godesses were called into action.
I wonder if there's still any left, they must be museum pieces by now.
On the other hand I doubt if there'll be funds available for new ones.

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The older i get the more right wing i become. At age 12 years, Draco was my hero!;)

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In many ways the situation reminds me of the UK in the 1970s. Mass strikes, traditional industries dying or going bust, uncollected rubbish in the streets, the 3 day week etc, shops businesses having to turn their lights off and the British car industry collapsing etc etc.
Many who are not old enough to remember those days will not understand how really grim Britain was in the 70s and how the prevailing mood was of total despair with the situation and the 'state' of the country.
I appreciate the root causes were different but all societies sometimes have to go through these traumas to bring them back to their senses and compel them to get to grips with things.

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Well, the strike may be over, they came to an agreement last night not to sack the 125 workers but instead everyone will have to accept a 10% pay cut. The employees are voting on it this afternoon. Given they have just lost three weeks pay during the strike, you can imagine what a happy Christmas they and their families will be having.

What was the rubbish strike about in the UK, can anyone remember?

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I think what normally happens here is that if the national police or military are deployed locally, the ayuntamiento has to reimburse central government.

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How right you are about the '70s in the UK. A complete train wreck. When people do Thatcher down they forget the mess she had to sort out courtesy of the unions. She was far from perfect but she was what was needed at the time.

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Guess we all saw it differently, certainly there were big problems, but personally I didn't feel a mood of "total despair", or anything like it. Yes, lots out of work, but a lot more of us carried on as normal.

Edit. Just looked, unemployment in UK in 1974-75 was 5.8%, in 1981 it peaked at 10.6%. We're talking about two and a half times that rate in Spain, over 25%, a huge difference. Even in the good years, Spain has always had high unemployment, their biggest export over the years has been people.

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Pretty much like the current situation in Spain then

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Same here, but that doesn't mean that the mood of much the nation was like that!
Yes, you're correct about unemployment rates, but in the UK, nearly full employment had been pretty much accepted and it was only when it began to rise to levels which are low by today's standards that people took to streets to protest. Leaving aside unemployment rates, imagine if Spain or Greeks were compelled by government to a 3 day working week, the lights went out and TV closed at 10pm to save energy. That's what was happening in Britain.
The then PM James Callaghan, returning from a trip abroad, told waiting news reporters that the British people were misguided in their perception of conditions and that things looked far brighter when viewed from overseas. He then became known as 'Sunny Jim' and his political career was over.
Yes of course many people carried on as 'normal', but any study of the UK during the 70s will reveal a mood amongst many of despair that things were bad and could only get worse.
The feeling amongst many that something radical needed to be done to sort the country out led in many ways to the election of Margaret Thatcher.
But that's for another day!

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I thought the 3 day week and planned power cuts were brought in by Edward Heath during the 1974 miners strike?

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I would tell you but the big brains have deemed it to be irrelevent
:)

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full employment was achieved under Maggie, the period when the unemployable were able to get jobs.

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Yep it was but there was also the winter of discontent when Labour were in government. I worked in Leicester Square London during that one. The rubbish was piled high and Rats running around. I remember the prime minister coming back from holiday and being asked about the crisis and his response was what "crisis what crisis".

I remember the Edward Heath one as well. worked in Knighstbridge and all the lights went out at a set time every day.

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You lot have short memories! She took over in 1979, unemployment hit 12% three years later.

http://bilbo.economicoutlook.net/blo..._1971_2009.jpg

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Yes, you are correct. The common theme running through the '70s was The Unions.

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I was quietly chuckling to myself at the comment about Thatcher....

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I remember it well. I was the "Man from the Pru" then and there were many, many households who couldn´t pay their premiums because they had lost their jobs and were losing their homes and facing bankruptcy. Oh yes and don´t forget when the interest rates hit something like 15%.

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Never let the facts get in the way of a good rant :rofl:

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yes, and the country's output actually increased in that period as people did their best for their country

I remember going round turning off one fluorescent tube in 3, but when it was a fitting of 4 we turned off 2, giving us 50% saving. Months after that was rescinded we still hadnt put things back as they were as we had grown used to it.

The problem is that now, when you look at government buildings in the UK they still have all their lights on in the middle of the night. Some fotog took foto's last year or year before proving it from a helicopter.

so is Jerez still burning ??


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No, not short memories - we were actually there, took part in it all, unlike those who were still wearing short pants at the time and only know the little they know from reading wiki etc.

Your "friend" Sunny Jim tried to be everyone's friend, wanted to have the unions round for sarnies as did his predecessor Harold Wilson.
That left the country desititute, borrowing at sky high levels. That has been the continuing theme in the transfer from Labour to Tory government over the past 100 years.


So why is Jerez burning ? ? ?

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very true

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People are setting fire to the rubbish, partly in protest, partly to get rid of it and partly because it's a health risk as I understand it.

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but I thought there was an agreement.
and it gets us back on thread about Jerez, instead of whittering on about Thatcher/Callaghan/Wilson etc etc which are nothing to do with it, even though I did post London had a similar problem decades ago, it was stated as not being relevent, although we all know Spain is generally accepted by the Spanish to be 30 years behind the times.

It is a sad thing that affairs have to come to this point, especially when a govt dept actually rescinds a legal contract without understanding the health aspects of their actions. They have a duty to the public who pay their wages and the contract.

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We have a couple of huge warehouse type Ferreterias close by that opened up just before the crisis.
I was in both this week, the shelves were half empty, the staff were miserable and appeared almost suicidal, from what I could see of then that is.

Half the lights had been shut down altogether, the others were so dim I could hardly see a damned thing.

If I go back in next week I'll be taking a flashlight with me to help find what I'm looking for.

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Loving the support for Thatcher!

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OK, I was only four when Thatcher got in but I can still read history books (Andrew Marr's History of Modern Britain is very good). And checking the facts online is more reliable than human memory - as proved by whoever said that there was no unemployment on her watch!

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The strike is over, the workers are on double shifts to clear up the backlog and the burning has stopped.

Urbaser will probably just not fill vacant posts and let the number of staff run down gradually rather than sacking 125 workers - so the people of Jerez will suffer in the long run because there will be a reduction in service.