New York City Sanitation Workers Go On Strike

Anderson Avenue, in the Bronx. Photo Dennis Harper

The streets of New York really did stink.  For nine straight days beginning on February 2nd, 1968 the 

Uniform Sanitationmen’s Association went on a city-wide strike that left the streets awash with garbage.

Only three days into the strike, the New York Times described the scene as:

“a vast slum as mounds of refuse grow higher and strong winds whirl the filth through the streets.”

The strike was resolved on Feb 11th, when a compromise raise and contract arbitration was agreed upon between the city and the union.

Sources:

The Great Garbage Strike of 1968, by Janos Marton, in Untapped Cities. (11 Feb 2015)