Trash collectors in Chamchamal go on strike
SULAIMANI, Kurdistan Region - Piles of garbage accumulated on the streets of Chamchamal after trash collectors went on strike for four consecutive days.
The cleaners are employed by private companies to pick up garbage on the streets of the town. Two of the employees, Sarchil Ali and Osman Mohammad, claim that they are on strike because they have not yet received their salaries for almost two months now.
“I only need my monthly salary which is only 200,000 Iraqi dinar,” Osman Mohammad, street cleaner, told Rudaw’s Peshawa Baxtyar on Tuesday. He also added that it makes him feel bad to “see the streets of Chamchamal getting dirtier everyday.”
The garbage is a nuisance and its bad smell has been disturbing the citizens of Chamchamal.
Cleaning companies in Sulaimani went on strike last month, claiming that the government had not provided them with financial assistance since September.
The companies previously received monthly financial assistance from the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), but in the spring of last year the KRG implemented austerity measures on the financial assistance in aims to reduce government spending as they were facing a financial crisis due to disagreements with Baghdad over the region’s share of the federal budget.
The cleaners are employed by private companies to pick up garbage on the streets of the town. Two of the employees, Sarchil Ali and Osman Mohammad, claim that they are on strike because they have not yet received their salaries for almost two months now.
“I only need my monthly salary which is only 200,000 Iraqi dinar,” Osman Mohammad, street cleaner, told Rudaw’s Peshawa Baxtyar on Tuesday. He also added that it makes him feel bad to “see the streets of Chamchamal getting dirtier everyday.”
The garbage is a nuisance and its bad smell has been disturbing the citizens of Chamchamal.
The companies previously received monthly financial assistance from the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), but in the spring of last year the KRG implemented austerity measures on the financial assistance in aims to reduce government spending as they were facing a financial crisis due to disagreements with Baghdad over the region’s share of the federal budget.