SOMETHING stinks. And it’s not just the overflowing bins and decaying mountains of rubbish strewn across the cobbled streets of Auld Reekie which is being buried under mountains of trash and reeks of rat-infested rubbish. The city’s waste workers downed gloves last Thursday and began industrial action in a bitter dispute pay with the council, midway through its jam-packed festival season.
Bin chaos, which this week escalated across large swathes of Scotland, when thousands of waste workers and street cleaners from 13 other local authorities, including those from Glasgow, Aberdeen and Dundee, decided to follow their fellow workers in Edinburgh and take immediate strike action, after union talks broke down over a poor 5% pay offer from COSLA, the national association representing Scotland’s local authorities.
What really stinks has been the complete lack of concern and almost laissez-faire attitude shown by COSLA and the Scottish Government to this growing crisis.
Until recently, there has been no real urgency shown from either of them to try to find a solution, no real will it seems, to sit down and negotiate a fair pay settlement with the unions, who represent some of the lowest paid workers in the country.
The Scottish Government is particularly to blame. They have acted like hands off fringe players rather than hands-on directors. Happy to hide under a choking fug of obfuscation and passing the buck, or it could be argued not passing the bucks, given that they control our local authorities' purse strings, while our towns and cities start to resemble open land fill sites.
It's hard to argue with Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar who said: “They have been missing during this crisis and are failing local workers, residents and tourists."
This is a crisis of the SNP’s making – they’ve slashed local government funds for more than a decade, leaving them without resources to settle this dispute.
It's only now, a week after Edinburgh’s well-earned reputation as one of the world’s leading tourist destinations has been publicly soiled and embarrassingly trashed on the global stage, that the government have recognised that there is a problem and stepped up to the mark.
Deputy First Minister John Swinney is now finally trying – but failing – to broker a deal. A failure in negotiations that he unsurprisingly defended with verbal garbage by saying, “he had no legal standing to negotiate a deal”.
The rotting heaps of rubbish continue to pile up, spoiling this year’s international festival, now dubbed the “Festival of Filth”. The cruel and unfair joke now doing the rounds locally is that, “Edinburgh is that bad it now looks like Glasgow”. Oooft!
Scottish hospitality and tourism leaders, whose members are still reeling from the pandemic and are worried sick over rising inflation and surging energy costs, have expressed dismay about the lasting damage this strike could have on trade.
Leon Thompson, UK Hospitality Scotland said: “Hospitality is facing threats on many fronts. Energy bills rising by 400%, inflation on food and drink in excess of 25% and chronic staff shortages are all contributing to a cost of business crisis that is already proving ruinous.
"There was optimism that August would deliver for businesses starved of custom since 2019. However, the ever-rising mounds of rubbish made things difficult for hospitality businesses, particularly those with outdoor seating on pavements. Lost custom and, possibly, visitors shortening their stay and opportunity to spend, is a result of the unpleasant environment.”
Marc Crothall, of the Scottish Tourism Alliance, was scathing. He said: “The images of rubbish piling up in the nation’s capital have travelled far and wide, significantly harming not only Edinburgh’s reputation but Scotland’s reputation as an attractive destination. Tourists are already stating that they will not return and will no doubt spread the word about their awful experience of Edinburgh.
"I would urge Scotland’s First Minister, the Scottish Government and COSLA to work together to find an immediate solution before lasting and critical harm is done to our already struggling tourism industry.”
They are not wrong. The whole thing stinks! Where’s Aggie Mackenzie with her Marigolds when you need her?
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