00:00Council workers in an East London area have warned that household rubbish could once again start to build up over the Christmas period
00:13after staff in Refuse Collection and Grounds Maintenance announced plans for a new round of strikes.
00:20The GMB union said that an overwhelming majority of its members, 97%, according to the most recent ballot, had voted in favour of industrial action
00:32and an ongoing dispute over pay with the FCC environment, which is the private contractor responsible for carrying out the services on behalf of the Waltham Forest Council.
00:45Union representatives have explained the strikes were scheduled for several blocks of dates throughout December,
00:53starting on the 12th and finishing on the 23rd, sporadic between those dates,
00:59and then again in the new year from the 2nd until the 9th of January, again sporadic during those dates as well.
01:06Now, the union said they've been left with no alternative.
01:09Mary Goodson, a regional organiser for the GMB, reportedly told residents that workers had still not been offered what the union considered
01:18a fair and reasonable pay uplift, and that members believed industrial action was now the only way to make their voices heard.
01:28Now, this would be the second time in recent years East London has faced an issue when it comes to rubbish strikes caused last time.
01:40Locals described it as mountains of waste in Whitechapel.
01:44Now, at that time, it was Tower Hamlets Council that was having the issue.
01:49Now, it's been a talking point of late with rubbish in the streets and an increase in fly tipping in the capital.
01:55So, just how dirty is London?
01:58Yeah, you do see a lot of stuff dumped on the road regularly.
02:03I will say, you know, because I've been quite negative, just in London's defence,
02:07if you look at other European capitals, London actually is relatively clean in that respect.
02:13So, I will give them credit for that.
02:15But again, if there's fly tipping, then there's an issue.
02:19So, to come back to focus on London, if there's fly tipping, there's an issue.
02:22So, something does need to be done.
02:24Not so much in London, but in some of the suburbs, yes.
02:29Bikes thrown down, the bikes that are stacked thrown down.
02:33A lot of garbage all over the side streets.
02:36A lot of empty bottles, empty cans, straws.
02:41At the end of the day, it's all about increasing accessibility to where you can safely throw away rubbish.
02:49But at the same time, if you need to put out fines to stop fly tipping,
02:54then that's something you can also do in combination with other things.
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