Chicago residents and business owners struggle to keep their collecting garbage free of rats, less than two days after 3,300 city and suburban trash haulers went on strike. The waste haulers are asking for a minimum wage increase of $2 an hour for each of the next three years.
Mayor Richard M. Daley has chosen not intervene in the strike and is confident that the matter can be resolved quickly by the parties involved.
See "Chicago Strike Leaves Garbage Piling Up", Jo Napolitano, The New York Times, October 2, 2003