By Steve Stratford, Deputy Editor
THE council workers' strike last Wednesday and Thursday probably affected people with rubbish and recycling to get rid of more than anybody else. Yes, libraries were closed and the odd school (six closed in Conwy, but amazingly they were all closed in Flintshire!), but by and large the most frustrating effect of the industrial action is that wheelie bins weren't emptied. It's bad enough having to wait two weeks to have your household waste taken away; any longer than that is particularly galling.
Throughout the two days my inbox was bombarded with updates from Unison about what effect the strike was having across the UK. There was an almost smug pride in the way the union was bullet-pointing all the closures, cancellations and postponements across the country, but there were some real gems to come out of these press releases.
In Bristol strikers were doing the "low paid limbo" on picket lines demonstrating how low council workers' salaries are, while others were walking tightropes to show how hard it is to balance their budgets. Sounds like a lot of fun, and it would have made great pictures for the media of course, as would the strikers in Leeds who dressed up as Cinderella to demonstrate that they were the poorest paid in the public sector. They did want to go to the ball, but the council-run community centre was shut for the day...
Unison was pleased to announce there were stray dogs roaming the Amber Valley as the dog wardens were on strike, and almost gleeful about the fact that registrars in Barnsley were on the picket line, although they were still registering deaths, it was just births and marriages they were turning away. It's good to know the dead still have rights in Barnsley.
National judges arriving for the Bury in Bloom contest were made to use a taxi instead of a limousine because the mayor's chauffeur was on strike. What's more, the economy class judges were greeted by council gardeners picketing when they visited Bury Gardens!
Oh, and parking was free for two days in Hastings because parking attendants joined the strike. I don't think we had such luck in Conwy, although I did spot the mayor of Bury's chauffeur parking his limo on Llandudno prom at one point...
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