Australian Services Union secretary Lisa Darmanin says it’s important to remember those who sacrifice so that we can enjoyr our holidays with our family.
The old tradition of leaving a bottle or two of beer out for the garbos at the end of the year may be a thing of the past, but you can still say thanks to waste collection workers and other essential local government workers this Christmas.
At each of Victoria’s 79 local councils, local government workers deliver essential services that we rely on every day. From road workers to librarians, emergency management specialists, aged and disability care workers, and the workers who are up collecting our bins and recycling while most of us are still in bed, local government workers keep our communities running.
I remember when it was the done thing to put out a bottle of beer or two for the garbos collecting the rubbish. It was a genuine gesture of thanks to workers we didn’t often see and maybe didn’t even know.
The work of waste collection has changed a lot with skilled workers driving high-tech vehicles and collecting bins at a rate that the fittest waste collection workers would have struggled to match when bins were manually grabbed off the kerb and tipped into a truck.
But the work is just as important, and the workers performing it are just as committed to doing the best job they can.
So even if it’s not with a bottle of beer, say a big thank you to waste collection workers this Christmas by giving them a friendly wave in recognition of the critically important work they do.
