garbage compactor

After two Black garbage collectors, Echol Cole and Robert Walker, were fatally crushed by a garbage compactor, Black sanitation workers across the city protested poor working conditions and the Memphis Department of Public Works’ mistreatment of employees.

King had gotten involved in a contentious strike by sanitation workers in Memphis, upset over the accidental deaths of two co-workers in a garbage compactor and a history of poor pay and ill treatment.

The protests were unleashed by the death of a fish vendor who was crushed by a garbage compactor in October while trying to recover fish that officials had confiscated.

Protesters are demanding government investment in the impoverished northern Rif region, and justice for a fish vendor crushed by a garbage compactor last year while trying to save fish that officials had confiscated.

The trouble began in October after a fishmonger called Mouhcine Fikri was crushed by a garbage compactor at a port in Al Hoceima, which is located in the Rif, a northern mountain region with a rebellious streak.