“Society needs to understand that trash workers are not trash. And that the trash produces wealth. The trash worker is not trash, he produces wealth”, says Carlos Davi Barros da Silva, leader unionist of the Union of Workers in Urban Cleaning of Bahia (SINDILIMP-BA).

On 5 and 6 July , PSI Communications team visited Salvador, capital of the State of Bahia, Brazil, to document the daily life and work of the urban cleaning workers there, as part of the “One Day” video series.

Known as Negro Davi, the SINDILIMP unionist leader is also a rapper. In his music, he seeks to value workers in the cleaning sector, in addition to addressing issues related to racism in Brazilian society. According to him, 90% of the workers in this sector are black, since most of them come from slum communities, poor neighbourhoods where most of the black population live.

PSI Communications team also interviewed Deisy Sousa das Dores, who explained the difficulties of doing cleaning work outdoors, in the rain and sunshine, and that many people do not value this type of work.