Sicily's city of Palermo was buried in a mountain of waste on Sunday as garbage collectors pressed on with a strike over fears that their struggling employer will not pay them.
Piles of trash as high as two metres (6 feet 5 inches) lined apartment buildings and church walls across the city, as firefighters received reports of some 200 rubbish fires sparked by hot temperatures on the island.
Garbagemen have been on strike or have done limited trash pick-ups as they refuse to work overtime for fear of not getting paid by their employer, the trash collection company Amia, which is 150 million euros in the hole.
The city council dropped Sunday a plan to raise the waste management tax by 30 percent to help Amia after a stormy municipal meeting.
Mayor Diego Cammarata said the strike was "seriously irresponsible" as the city was more and more "invaded by trash in an intolerable and indecent way."
The collectors' union decided to remain on strike until they received guarantees on the future of their employer.
They also demanded better work equipment, saying that they were not working in safe conditions.
The strike recalls the rubbish problems that have hit Naples, where the mafia has been blamed for a garbage crisis in a city that has been on a "waste state of emergency" for 14 years.
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