00:05It's a strike causing a stench through Melbourne's north.
00:09It will be very, very smelly.
00:11When you walk and the bin is not collected, you can smell it's really, really bad.
00:17We thrive on waste collection, which keeps the environment clean.
00:21Thousands of garbage and green waste bins were left unemptied after garbage collectors
00:26in the council areas of Darabin, Marybeck and Hume walked off the job.
00:31Parking ticket inspectors in Yarra, Melbourne and Maribyrnong also stopped work,
00:35in a push to get eight Metro Melbourne councils to give workers an immediate 10 per cent pay rise.
00:41Here today at Hume, they've offered 2.5 per cent, which does not go far enough
00:45to keep up with the cost of living pressures that our members are experiencing.
00:49The union says with an average salary of $70,000,
00:52local government workers are worse off now than five years ago.
00:56It blames state government imposed limits to how much councils can increase their rates.
01:01Every time workers sit down to bargain with councils,
01:05they're told that the rate cap means that they can't meet their demands.
01:08It's not good enough.
01:09Rates cap's been around, I think, now for nearly a decade.
01:13It has been proven to support Victorians through cost of living.
01:17The government must make some very clear decisions and stop shifting across the costs
01:22to the councils to deliver services the government should deliver.
01:25The strike means thousands of residents have been left to put up with overflowing bins.
01:30Here in the city of Hume, about 17,000 homes won't have their rubbish bins collected today,
01:36so they'll have to wait until next week.
01:39Another 14,000 homes are affected in Darabin and Marybeck.
01:42The eight councils involved said disruption to their communities was regrettable,
01:46and they're negotiating in good faith.
01:49The union is warning further industrial action could lie ahead if the dispute continues.
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