Rubbish Piles Up in Rat-Plagued Glasgow as Refuse Strike Hits During COP26

Last week Glasgow City Council leader Susan Aitken, a member of the separatist Scottish National Party, was ridiculed after she blamed the late British PM Margaret Thatcher for city's infestation of over a million rats.

Rubbish has been piling up in the now-rat-infested Scottish city of Glasgow, amid a strike by refuse workers that began with the start of the COP26 UN global warming and climate change conference.

Members of the GMB trade union walked out at midnight on Sunday, after attempts to resolve its disputes with the Glasgow City Council had failed.

The union's grievances include a "discriminatory" pay system and ongoing equal pay "liabilities" as well as chronic problems it blames on years of cuts by the Scottish National Party (SNP)-led council.

GMB also slammed the council's willingness to use labour laws torestrict member rights to strike, after an unsuccessful last-minute court bid to rule the strike unlawful.

The union also claimed that the council shut down negotiations before the former had a chance to ballot its members on a pay offer tabled by the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (COSLA).

GMB offered proposals to @GlasgowCC to reset industrial relations and to fix Glasgow's waste crisis. These were rejected.

Low paid workers and community activists are now standing together across Glasgow to say "enough is enough".

Stand with us, not against us. ✊ #COP26 pic.twitter.com/YKLxjka4Ik

— GMB Scotland (@GMBScotOrg) November 2, 2021

"Stand with us, and stand shoulder to shoulder in solidarity."

Enough is enough.#COP26Strike pic.twitter.com/WOq3MCInbj

— GMB Scotland (@GMBScotOrg) October 31, 2021

Spirits are high among the strikers, with one picket line recorded dancing the conga. Green activists in town for the summit of world leaders also turned up to support the strikers.

😂👏🧡 https://t.co/A444u6t6sI

— GMB Scotland (@GMBScotOrg) November 2, 2021

Ryan & Kate from our team were proud to join refuse workers on the picket line at Dawsholm in Glasgow today.

The climate movement stands with those fighting for fair pay in their essential work. ✊#COP26 @GMBGlasgowCC pic.twitter.com/JF6jTRAwbY

— Friends of the Earth Scotland 🌎 (@FoEScot) November 1, 2021

A local community support group, No1Seems2Care, supported the strike on Monday evening by symbolically dumping items of rubbish on the City Chamber's doorstep.

These unwanted items were left outside the front door of the City Chambers today in support of the Cleansing Workers. Those involved want to see how long it will take GCC to remove them compared to how long Glaswegians have to wait.https://t.co/Pgxq9WRRsQ

— No1seems2care@Peopledocare (@No1seems2careP1) November 1, 2021

Meanwhile, Glasgow Council leader Susan Aitken attempted to walk back her public comments last week, in which she blamed the late Conservative UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher — who left office in 1990 well before her death in 2013 — for the plague of over a million rats, one for every man, woman, and child in Scotland's largest city.

In recent months, several cities refuse workers have had to be treated after being attacked by the vermin as they cleared up rubbish.

Aitken had also downplayed the infestation in the "filthy" city as normal, saying: "all cities have rats."

Susan Aitken denies blaming Thatcher for 'plague' of Glasgow rats... despite everybody hearing her https://t.co/6MbMjBUcmL

— Steve Sayers 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿in🇬🇧=👍🏼 #Scexit👎🏼 (@SteveSayersOne) November 2, 2021

Climate Conference Chaos

The refuse strike is not the only fly in the ointment at the climate change conference.

A threatened strike by rail union RMT was averted on the eve of the conference after ScotRail — due to be taken over by the SNP-devolved government in March 2021 — agreed to an interim pay deal that kicked the can of the pay dispute down the road to next year.

Monday trains set to carry delegates and protesters from London to Glasgow were cancelled after gale-force winds blew trees onto the track.

‘There’s been talk about 1.3 million rats roaming the streets, attacking refuge collectors’

Darren McCaffrey says ‘it’s not been the easiest of starts to this conference in Glasgow’ pic.twitter.com/L60cS1Xbpo

— GB News (@GBNEWS) November 1, 2021

On Tuesday morning it took many attendees an hour just to enter the conference centre.

Several important world leaders, including Russian President Vladimir Putin, Chinese President Xi Jinping, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro and South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, did not attend. US President Joe Biden, after hailing his country's return to the Paris Accords of the 2015 COP21 summit, is claimed by some to have nodded off during the opening proceedings.