BUENOS AIRES – The streets of the Argentine capital dawned Monday piled with garbage bags following a 48-hour strike by roughly 1,500 employees at the three dumps serving Greater Buenos Aires.

Workers began the walkout Sunday night in a bid for pledges that their jobs will be preserved when the new trash-collection system being designed by municipal and provincial authorities goes into operation.

Employees blocked the entrances to the city’s three dumps run by state-owned Ceamse sanitation enterprise as a pressure tactic which, a union spokesperson said, they plan to end Tuesday night.

Unable to enter the dumps, garbage trucks have stopped picking up the trash bags choking the city streets.

Buenos Aires City Hall asked citizens not to put bags of refuse in the streets until the labor conflict is resolved.

The Argentine capital has few Dumpsters and most trash bags are piled at the entrances to buildings for collection.

The city’s trash output grew significantly over the past five years, rising from 1.4 million tons in 2005 to 1.8 million in 2009, which signifies a 28.5-percent increase, according to Ceamse figures. EFE