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7 January 2008
MADRID – Commuters on Madrid Metro should be travelling to work in a less garbage-strewn subway system today after cleaners called off a three-week strike last night following an agreement on wages and job stability with sanitation companies.
The accord will equate cleaners’ wages no matter what cleaning company they are contracted to, as well as phasing in a EUR 120 monthly bonus as compensation for working in a hazardous environment. More cleaners will be put on long-term contracts, while 70 people laid off since the strike began in mid-December will be reinstated.
During the industrial action, the longest in the history of Madrid’s subway system, the company that operates rail services reported 500 acts of vandalism, allegedly by cleaners hoping to worsen the effects of the strike.
[Copyright El Pais 2008]
Subject: Spanish news