History Main / WhyWeNeedGarbagemen

* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'': The plot of "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS9E22TrashOfTheTitans Trash Of The Titans]]" kicks off when Homer insults his garbage men, so they cut off service to the Simpsons house, leaving piles of garbage to pile up around their house. Later in the episode, when Homer becomes Sanitation Commissioner and spends his entire annual budget in a month (leaving nothing left to pay wages), the sanitation workers threaten to strike, prompting Homer to come up with the solution of getting other cities to pay him to store their excess garbage in an abandoned mineshaft (which leads to problems of a different sort).
-->'''[[Music/{{U2}} Bono]]:''' Hold on, people! The man's talking about waste management. That affects the whole damn planet!

A SubTrope of TrashOfTheTitans and StrikeEpisode.

* ''Series/{{Monk}}'': "[[Recap/MonkS5E2MrMonkAndTheGarbageStrike Mr. Monk and the Garbage Strike]]" takes place amidst a garbagemen's strike, with the BodyOfTheWeek being a union boss, putting pressure on the investigation.

* ''Series/ItsAlwaysSunnyInPhiladelphia'': "[[Recap/ItsAlwaysSunnyInPhiladelphiaS08E02TheGangRecyclesTheirTrash The Gang Recycles Their Trash" centers around the gang becoming freelance garbage collectors after trash starts piling up around town due to a garbage strike.

Subtrope of TrashOfTheTitans and StrikeEpisode.

[[AC:Film -- Live-Action]]

[[AC:Literature]]

[[AC:Live-Action TV]]

[[AC:Western Animation]]

[[AC:Real Life]]
* Politically, a major strike by waste disposal workers in the winter of 1978-79 was one of the triggers that saw the election of UsefulNotes/MargaretThatcher later in the year. Aided by right-wing newspapers publishing graphic photos of uncollected waste piling up in the streets and attracting rats -- which became iconic images -- Thatcher would be elected PM on an anti-union ticket.

May also provide AnAesop about the importance of sanitation workers or about taking out the garbage. If the accumulated trash is symptomatic of [[CrapsackWorld broader societal problems]], then it may also be considered a setting-wide example of MessOfWoe.

* ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'': A variation. The episode "The Last of the Meheecans" has Butters inadvertently inspiring all individuals of Mexican heritage in the U.S. to return to Mexico, meaning that several households and business have lost a lot of their workforce, including cleaners. Randy is one of the few who have no qualms about it, until he discovers that there now isn't anyone to clean up the massive piles of leaves scattered throughout the neighbourhood.

* Another noteworthy example is the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memphis_sanitation_strike Memphis Sanitation Strike]] of 1968, in which the city's sanitation workers — many of whom were black — went on strike after two black garbagemen [[CruelAndUnusualDeath were killed in their truck's trash compactor]][[note]]They'd been trying to shelter from the rain and couldn't go into a nearby building due to segregation laws, so they went into their truck instead[[/note]]. Memphis's mayor, Henry Loeb, was a white supremacist who opposed the then-ongoing UsefulNotes/CivilRightsMovement and refused to recognize the union or make any concessions, and had the police brutally suppress a pro-strike demonstration, resulting in a teenage boy being killed by police. Infamously, UsefulNotes/MartinLutherKingJr was assassinated in Memphis while supporting the strike.

* In ''Literature/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy'' series, it's eventually revealed that the planet the human species originated was wiped out by a virus contracted from a telephone after they determined only great thinkers and doers were important to society and sent everyone else in society off to another planet (Earth) to be forgotten about--including the telephone sanitizers.

* In ''Literature/TheHitchHikersGuideToTheGalaxy'' series, it's eventually revealed that the planet the human species originated was wiped out by a virus contracted from a telephone after they determined only great thinkers and doers were important to society and sent everyone else in society off to another planet (Earth) to be forgotten about--including the telephone sanitizers.

* In ''Literature/TheHitchHikersGuideTheGalaxy'' series, it's eventually revealed that the planet the human species originated was wiped out by a virus contracted from a telephone after they determined only great thinkers and doers were important to society and sent everyone else in society off to another planet (Earth) to be forgotten about--including the telephone sanitizers.

May also provide AnAesop about the importance of sanitation workers or about taking out the garbage. If the accumulated trash is indicative of [[CrapsackWorld broader societal problems]], then it may also be considered a setting-wide example of MessOfWoe.

* Another noteworthy example is the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memphis_sanitation_strike Memphis Sanitation Strike]] of 1968, in which the city's sanitation workers — many of whom were black — went on strike after two black garbagemen [[CruelAndUnusualDeath were killed in their truck's trash compactor]][[note]]They'd been trying to shelter from the rain and couldn't go into a nearby building due to segregation laws, so they went into their truck instead[[/note]]. Memphis's mayor, Henry Loeb, was a white supremacist who opposed the then-ongoing UsefulNotes/CivilRightsMovement and refused to recognize the union or make any concessions, and had the police brutally suppress a pro-strike demonstration, resulting in a teenage boy being killed by police. Infamously, UsefulNotes/MartinLutherKingJr was assassinated in Memphis while supporting the strike.

May also provide AnAesop about the importance of sanitation workers or about taking out the garbage. If [[CrapsackWorld the setting is so grim]] that [[FailedState the local authorities can't even be bothered to pick up trash]], then it may also be considered a setting-wide example of MessOfWoe.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'': The plot of "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS9E22TrashOfTheTitans Trash Of The Titans]]" kicks off when Homer insults his garbage men so they cut off service to the Simpsons house, leaving piles of garbage to pile up around their house. Later in the episode, when Homer becomes Sanitation Commissioner and spends his entire annual budget in a month (leaving nothing left to pay wages), the sanitation workers threaten to strike, prompting Homer to come up with the solution of getting other cities to pay him to store their excess garbage in an abandoned mineshaft (which leads to problems of a different sort).

* WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons: The plot of "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS9E22TrashOfTheTitans Trash Of The Titans]]" kicks off when Homer insults his garbage men so they cut off service to the Simpsons house, leaving piles of garbage to pile up around their house. Later in the episode, when Homer becomes Sanitation Commissioner and spends his entire annual budget in a month (leaving nothing left to pay wages), the sanitation workers threaten to strike, prompting Homer to come up with the solution of getting other cities to pay him to store their excess garbage in an abandoned mineshaft (which leads to problems of a different sort).

%% * WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons: The plot of "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS9E22TrashOfTheTitans Trash Of The Titans]]" kicks off when Homer insults his garbage men so they cut off service to the Simpsons house, leaving piles of garbage to pile up around their house. Later in the episode, when Homer becomes Sanitation Commissioner and spends his entire annual budget in a month (leaving nothing left to pay wages), the sanitation workers threaten to strike, prompting Homer to come up with the solution of getting other cities to pay him to store their excess garbage in an abandoned mineshaft (which leads to problems of a different sort).

* ''WesternAnimation/TransformersAnimated'' provides a non-strike example. The Season 2 Episode "[[Recap/TransformersAnimatedS2E04GarbageInGarbageOut Garbage In, Garbage Out]]" takes place during a contract dispute between Sumdac Systems (which builds and maintains the city's trash collection robots) and the city of Detroit, resulting in the robots malfunctioning (as depicted in the trope image) and garbage piling up all over town. Ratchet winds up having to yell at Porter C. Powell and Mayor Edsel to meet each other halfway – lest he chuck them both in the water – to resolve the crisis.

* ''WesternAnimation/TransformersAnimated'' provides a non-strike example. The Season 2 Episode "[[Recap/TransformersAnimatedS2E04GarbageInGarbageOut Garbage In, Garbage Out]]" takes place during a contract dispute between Sumdac Systems (which builds and maintains the city's trash collection robots) and the city of Detroit, resulting in the robots malfunctioning (as depicted in the trope image) and garbage piling up all over town.

* Even ''Series/SesameStreet'' had an episode where the local sanitation union is on strike and refuse hasn't been collected in some time. Gordon and Susan help explain the basics of what a strike is to viewers and that the two sides need to reach an agreement before the refuse collectors agree to go back to work. The two then discuss a plan with their neighbors to help solve the issue of what to do with the refuse in the meantime.

* ''WesternAnimation/RockosModernLife'': In "[[Recap/RockosModernLifeS1E12SpitballsPopcornPandemonium Popcorn Pandemonium]]", Rocko and Heffer see a trailer for a movie called ''Garbage Strike: The Musical''. In this trailer, the Rat Garbagemen sing about how they won't pick up any garbage that's polluting O-Town, and why is that? Cause' they're on strike!

Expect residents to be none too happy about it. In fact, some writers may use it to give people in the setting a reason to be irritable, much like they would be during a HeatWave (there may even be overlap –- since a heat wave would likely make the garbage smell even worse).

* Another noteworthy example is the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memphis_sanitation_strike Memphis Sanitation Strike]] of 1968, in which the city's sanitation workers –- many of whom were black –- went on strike after two black garbagemen [[CruelAndUnusualDeath were killed in their truck's trash compactor]][[note]]They'd been trying to shelter from the rain and couldn't go into a nearby building due to segregation laws, so they went into their truck instead[[/note]]. Memphis's mayor, Henry Loeb, was a white supremacist who opposed the then-ongoing UsefulNotes/CivilRightsMovement and refused to recognize the union or make any concessions, and had the police brutally suppress a pro-strike demonstration, resulting in a teenage boy being killed by police. Infamously, UsefulNotes/MartinLutherKingJr was assassinated in Memphis while supporting the strike.

Expect residents to be none too happy about it. In fact, some writers may use it to give people in the setting a reason to be irritable, much like they would be during a HeatWave (there may even be overlap – since a heat wave would likely make the garbage smell even worse).

[[AC:Film - Live-Action]]

* ''Film/MrsHarrisGoesToParis'': {{Downplayed}}. Mrs. Harris visits Paris in 1957, in the midst of a garbage workers' strike, meaning that while the sights are beautiful, the streets are filled with trash. While Mrs. Harris is still able to enjoy the city in spite of this, this background struggle for fair work compensation parallels those of Mrs. Harris, who is often taken advantage of in her day job as a widowed house cleaner, and the Dior workers she gets to know on the quest to get her dress, whose jobs are at risk as the company struggles to modernize, all of whom must learn to fight for their own fair compensation. [[spoiler: It also foreshadows that the RichBitch who claimed the dress Mrs. Harris first fell in love with out of spite is the wife of the unfair sanitation plant owner behind the strike. When the couple is arrested for corruption and graft near the film's end, Mrs. Harris is able to get her dream dress after all.]]

[[AC: Real Life]]
* Politically, a major strike by waste disposal workers in the winter of 1978-79 was one of the triggers that saw the election of UsefulNotes/MargaretThatcher later in the year. Aided by right-wing newspapers publishing graphic photos of uncollected waste piling up in the streets and attracting rats - which became iconic images - Thatcher would be elected PM on an anti-union ticket.
* Another noteworthy example is the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memphis_sanitation_strike Memphis Sanitation Strike]] of 1968, in which the city's sanitation workers – many of whom were black – went on strike after two black garbagemen [[CruelAndUnusualDeath were killed in their truck's trash compactor]][[note]]They'd been trying to shelter from the rain and couldn't go into a nearby building due to segregation laws, so they went into their truck instead[[/note]]. Memphis's mayor, Henry Loeb, was a white supremacist who opposed the then-ongoing UsefulNotes/CivilRightsMovement and refused to recognize the union or make any concessions, and had the police brutally suppress a pro-strike demonstration, resulting in a teenage boy being killed by police. Infamously, UsefulNotes/MartinLutherKingJr was assassinated in Memphis while supporting the strike.

* ''Film/TheOutOfTowners'' takes place amidst a garbage strike, with the piles of trash adding to the film's UrbanHellscape version of New York.

* ''Series/{{Monk}}'': "Mr. Monk and the Garbage Strike" takes place amidst a garbagemen's strike, with the BodyOfTheWeek being a union boss, putting pressure on the investigation.

Expect residents to be none too happy about it. In fact, some writers may use it to give people in the setting a reason to be irritable, much like they would be during a HeatWave (there may even be overlap ? since a heat wave would likely make the garbage smell even worse).

* Another noteworthy example is the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memphis_sanitation_strike Memphis Sanitation Strike]] of 1968, in which the city's sanitation workers ? many of whom were black ? went on strike after two black garbagemen [[CruelAndUnusualDeath were killed in their truck's trash compactor]][[note]]They'd been trying to shelter from the rain and couldn't go into a nearby building due to segregation laws, so they went into their truck instead[[/note]]. Memphis's mayor, Henry Loeb, was a white supremacist who opposed the then-ongoing UsefulNotes/CivilRightsMovement and refused to recognize the union or make any concessions, and had the police brutally suppress a pro-strike demonstration, resulting in a teenage boy being killed by police. Infamously, UsefulNotes/MartinLutherKingJr was assassinated in Memphis while supporting the strike.