Guyana garbage collectors end strike for back pay

GEORGETOWN (AP) -Garbage collectors in Guyana have ended a nearly two-month strike after the central government agreed to pay them $250,000 in back wages.

The deal takes care of most of the workers’ claims of $300,000 in unpaid salaries owed by the city of Georgetown.

It is the second time in the past year that the national government has bailed out the capital to end a garbage strike.

The city government says dwindling revenues are keeping it from meeting its obligations.

Tourism officials complained during the strike that the accumulating garbage was hurting their industry. City residents, meanwhile, took to burning trash and paying operators of horse-drawn carts to haul it away.

The strike ended Tuesday.