Mounds of trash are blocking Madrid's narrow streets... as a strike by the city's garbage collectors enters its fifth day.<br/> <br />Some 6,000 outdoor maintenance workers joined the walk-out at midnight tuesday....after their employers proposed slashing salaries by up to 40 percent and laying off more than 11 hundred people.<br/> <br />As the garbage piles up, resident Marivi Escudero says the city needs a solution.<br/> <br />SOUNDBITE: (Spanish) MADRID RESIDENT MARIVI ESCUDERO SAYING:<br/> <br />"I would like them to reach a cordial agreement, for the unions, the companies, and the mayor to look after the well-being of everybody."<br/> <br />Public sector cuts have done nothing to ease severe unemployment, which has risen to record levels of more than 26 percent.<br/> <br />Almost a third of all the unemployed in the 17-country euro zone live in Spain.
