Garbage began piling up on the streets of Oaxaca city earlier this week as the city’s 279 garbage collectors went on strike to demand better working conditions, just before the busy Easter vacation period.

But yesterday the mayor met with the striking workers and negotiated an end to the walk-out.

The waste collectors’ union said the strike was in response to the municipal government’s failure to repair and modernize the fleet of garbage trucks.

A union representative told the newspaper El Universal that 25 of the department’s 65 trucks were out of service and undergoing repairs, while the remaining trucks “are not in the best condition and require maintenance.”

After Mayor Oswaldo García Jarquín traveled with municipal workers to the open-air garbage dump at El Arenal in San Martín Mexicapam and inspected the garbage trucks he said the workers’ demands would be fulfilled.

He said the municipality would lease rather than purchase 40 new garbage trucks and would work toward the rehabilitation of the dump.

Source: El Universal (sp), La Onda Oaxaca (sp)