Garbage workers continue action despite new offer

Municipal garbage collectors on Tuesday rejected a proposed compromise by Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras aimed at ending an 11-day protest that has left huge piles of trash on city streets, vowing to continue protest action through Wednesday as temperatures soar. However, a decision to increase the number of emergency staff working in municipal sanitation indicated that the standoff might be easing.

Representatives of the union, POE-OTA, met with Tsipras at the Maximos Mansion for talks in the morning and officials initially indicated that the discussions had gone well. However, the union's executive committee later in the day decided to reject Tsipras's proposal, claiming that it offered an only slight improvement on the original recommended compromise by Interior Minister Panos Skourletis.

POE-OTA leader Nikos Trakas said the protest will go on as planned until...