"We're scared": Barcelona cleaning workers are worried about the heat.

Barcelona"Three days ago Montse was here with me, and now she is not," laments Lluís, a worker in the City Council's cleaning services and colleague of the woman who died on Saturday at night at his home after completing his shift during the heat wave. A death that, pending an autopsy to clarify its causes, has shaken the ranks of cleaning staff who comb the city's streets every day. "We're scared," admit several workers who spoke to ARA and who, like Lluís, use fictitious names to preserve their anonymity.

It's 4:00 p.m., and Lluís pauses for a moment in the shade of one of the narrowest streets in the Gothic Quarter to get some air before resuming work. Like Montse, he's part of the shift that covers this area of Ciutat Vella between 2:30 p.m. and 9:30 p.m., with a 20-minute break for lunch. While wiping off his sweat, he shows the piece of paper containing the map with the route he must complete marked in red. Among their missions is cleaning Plaça Sant Jaume, where at this hour there isn't even a shadow.

While they're talking, a couple of colleagues drive by in their small green and white cleaning vans. They stop and ask if he's carrying water and if he needs it. "Since what happened on Saturday, everyone's been very sensitive," explains Lluís. Robert explains that he also knew Montse, and that since her death, he's been drinking a lot more water and pouring it on his neck. At their headquarters, he says, they have a fountain, but they don't give them full bottles. It's 1 p.m., 34 degrees, and he's emptying the trash cans on Petritxol Street.

"We're devastated," admits Paco, a veteran of the city's cleaning service who works in the Raval district and says that at his age—he's close to retirement—Montse's death affects him a little more. "I can't stop thinking about it," Sonia explains, huffing and puffing as she dodges tourists along La Rambla. "I'm scared. I feel sick all the time. I don't know if it's the heat or the anxiety," she laments, and runs a bottle of cold water over the back of her neck before continuing on her way.

Two more scares

Two new scares added to the concern among the cleaning service workers this Tuesday. This morning, two of them had to be transferred to primary care centers (CAP) due to heat exhaustion, according to the CGT union. Unlike Montse, who worked for the company FCC, the woman and man who were ill this Tuesday work for the company Urbaser. She collapsed at 10:00 a.m. while sweeping on foot, in front of a cleaning machine, at the intersection of Badajoz and Pallars streets in Poblenou. He suffered heat exhaustion around 12:00 p.m. while working on a street sweeper without air conditioning.

The temperature of these vehicles without air conditioning is another cause of protest among its workers. The secretary of the CGT union branch, Victoria Chacón, explains to ARA that on June 2nd she sent a letter to the company reporting this lack of air conditioning in the vehicles and, despite not having received a response, she assures that this Tuesday they brought in some of the street sweepers, "about four or five," to have air conditioning installed. "They are obliged to do this because otherwise they will be fined," she complains.

Eva, a company worker, also says that the temperature inside the machines is higher than outside: "Inside it was 38 degrees, while the outside temperature was 33 degrees," she states, explaining that last week she experienced a series of power surges and drops. "I informed the managers, and they excused themselves by saying that they had already requested the installation of air conditioning in the vehicles," she explains. Robert is "lucky" to travel in a van that does have air conditioning. However, he says he almost never turns it on because the battery quickly runs out.

Chacón criticizes the fact that so far they haven't been given clear measures to follow in the face of the high temperatures. "We're receiving a leaflet with four basic instructions, but no clear protocol to protect us," he warns. Carmen, who empties bins behind La Boqueria, says the company tells them they can rest for ten minutes in the shade and hydrate every four or five bins. Paco, who adds a black hat to his green uniform to protect him a little more from the sun, says that today they were given a new paper with a list of weather shelters where they could take shelter if they weren't feeling well.

However, Paco isn't entirely confident that there will be any change. "People want the streets to be clean and the bins emptied at all times; they don't understand breaks," he notes. "I don't think anything will change," agrees Lluís, who is asking to be able to reduce hours or avoid the sunniest hours. Resigned, he abandons the pause in the shade and pushes the cart toward Plaça Sant Jaume, where in recent hours Montse's death has reopened the debate on the conditions of municipal employees who work in public spaces despite the high temperatures.

Collboni summons the concessionaires

After initially ruling out opening any case against FCC for Montse's death, the City Council reversed course late on Monday and issued a statement stating that it had decided to open the case "to clarify the circumstances that occurred." This Tuesday, the council went even further, summoning the four companies that are concessionaires for the city's cleaning and waste collection services (FCC, CLD, Valoriza, and Urbaser) to discuss the protocols planned for heat waves this Wednesday. All this, while pressure is also growing from the opposition, which has called for changes to the work protocols for high temperatures and an urgent appearance by Jaume Collboni's government.