Litter is beginning to accumulate on the streets of Glasgow city centre as cleansing workers in the city join the national strike action over pay.

GMB members in Glasgow started the first of four days of action today.

If there is no resolution to the dispute another four days of action will take place next month.

READ MORE: Private rents rise to £1000 in Glasgow a month amid calls for rent freeze

Household bins will not be collected and people are told not to put them out for collection if it falls on one of the strike days.

Street litter bins and street cleaning are also affected by the strike.

GMB said the political leaders had to make a serious offer to reflect the cost of living crisis.

In Sauchiehall Street the impact can be seen immediately as there is no street cleaning.

Glasgow Times:

On Friday morning one of the city centre’s main streets was littered with fast food takeaway cartons and other packaging left from the night before.

READ MORE:Glasgow bin strikes 2022: When will my collection take place?

People in the city centre reacted to what they were seeing.

One woman noted that while the street was covered with litter the bins were not full.

She said: “People have just thrown this away and not put it in the bins.

“Look at the bins they’re all empty.”

A man, who has been working in the street all week, remarked on the bags of rubbish piling up beside street bins.

He said:  “They have been there all week and there’s more added every day.

“These bags have not been picked up for days.”

Another man simply said: “It’s a disgrace, isn’t it.”

On its website, Glasgow City Council said about street bins: “We expect street litter bins, including those in parks, and public recycling points to be affected by the strike action.

“If a bin is already full then please try to find another bin that can take your waste or take your waste home and store it appropriately.”

GMB, which represents most of the cleansing workers in Glasgow said it will not accept poverty wages.

Keir Greenaway, GMB Scotland Senior Organiser for Public Services, said: “Aspirational proposals from political leaders won’t suspend these strikes and they won’t put a penny more in workers pockets to confront this rapidly deteriorating cost-of-living crisis.

“GMB members are clear that they are not prepared to accept working poverty as an inevitability and their strike actions are a direct response to the failure of political leaders to realise this.”