Street cleaners stop work demanding delayed salaries

Saudi Gazette report

JEDDAH — Garbage started piling up in the Bab Sharif area of Jeddah's historic district after more than 50 street cleaners stopped work in protest against non-payment of salaries, Al-Madina newspaper reported.

The workers claimed that they were not paid for the past five months.

Residents and shop owners say garbage has not been picked from the streets for more than 20 days and this has led to the multiplication of rodents and insects in this bustling commercial area.

The shop owners said their sales went down by more than half because of the garbage in front of the shops.

They asked the municipality to intervene to put a quick end to this tragic situation especially that a new business season is rapidly advancing with the advent of Ramadan.

"The customers stopped coming to my shop because of the garbage, the rodents and the bad smell and my sales dropped by more than 50 percent," said Mahfouz Abdul Jaleel, owner of a clothes store.

He said the rodents and insects have become a normal scene in the area, in addition to the bad smell that is driving customers away.

Mohammed Ali, another shop owner, opted no to wait for the intervention of the municipality. He and some his colleagues bought vacuum machines and started cleaning the frontage of their shops.

Ali said they began lifting the garbage from their shop fronts so that customers might not be driven away by the uncivilized scene.

Marwan Qasim and Zakaria Ali adopted another trick to get rid of the garbage. They started paying the cleaners some money to remove the garbage in front of their shops.

Qasim, a dress seller in the gold market, said even if the workers resume work, large qualities of garbage would be seen in front of their shops for many days.

"The area has become a breeding ground for rats and other insects, in addition to the bad odor. This is not a civilized scene for the historic district of Jeddah," he said.

A number of workers said their company did not pay their monthly salaries for more than five months and so they started collecting and selling empty cans and cartons to be able to sustain themselves and their families back home.

They said they would not pick garbage from the streets until the company paid them their salaries. They said they were ready to face the consequences.