Windy City stinks

last updated 8 January 2015

Chicago

Piles of garbage spilled into the streets of Chicago this week after sanitation workers went on strike. A federal mediator tried to broker a deal between the employees’ union—the Teamsters—and the private companies that pick up refuse at apartment buildings, restaurants, and shopping centers. The 3,300 workers want a 30 percent raise over three years, but their bosses say that’s too steep. As the strike entered its second week, Mayor Richard Daley threatened to sue both sides to recoup the cost of sending city workers to haul away the rising mounds of garbage, which were overflowing from dumpsters and filling the city with a terrible stink. “Somebody is going to pay for this,” Daley said.