Waste Management workers in King, Snohomish counties strike
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SEATTLE -- Dozens of Waste Management workers hit the picket lines on Wednesday, leaving many in the area unsure whether their pickup service would be interrupted.
Local Teamsters spokesman Paul Zilly said 153 yard waste and recycling drivers from King and Snohomish counties went on strike at 10 a.m.
The Teamsters said members had been working without a contract since May 31, and had voted to authorize a strike on June 2.
"The last thing we want is a strike, but Waste Management is using illegal bullying tactics to threaten our livelihood," said Brent Barrett, a Waste Management yard waste driver, in a statement released by the union.
The union said the National Labor Relations Board is investigating Waste Management for a number of alleged violations, including "bad-faith bargaining, coercing and direct dealing with its employees, threatening to retaliate against workers, and unilaterally changing working conditions."
However, a spokesperson for the company said Waste Management has tried times over to offer the workers a deal they would find acceptable.
Robin Freedman, the company's director of communications, said the two sides have been negotiating for the past four months, and the company has put forward 16 different proposals. The "last, best and final offer" was a 6-year contract that included an average annual pay of $98,000, a fully-funded employee pension and "a generous health and welfare benefits package," she said.
"Unfortunately, the union didn't like the final best offer, because they never even took it to the workers, to the members for them to take a look and vote on it," said Freedman. "We were truly hoping the union leadership would give the membership an opportunity to vote."
It was not immediately clear which part of the proposal the union found unacceptable. The two sides held their last negotiation meeting last month, Freedman said, but the proposal has been on the table for "quite some time."
The company's garbage truck drivers were not among those on strike; however, the union said those workers' contracts allow them to strike in solidarity. It was not immediately clear whether those workers would choose to exercise that option.
Waste Management said customers whose bins were not emptied as scheduled on Wednesday are urged to put out a double load next week at no extra cost.
"If you have not received recycling and yard waste pickup services today, you will not receive any," Freedman said.
All customers are urged to put out their bins on their regularly scheduled days.
"We will go on operating," said Freedman.
The company said if the strike continues for days, the company will implement its strike contingency plan, which prioritizes critical customers associated with public health including hospitals, nursing homes and daycare centers.
Both residential and commercial customers can check Waste Management's website for any changes or delays to their service.
Local Teamsters spokesman Paul Zilly said 153 yard waste and recycling drivers from King and Snohomish counties went on strike at 10 a.m.
The Teamsters said members had been working without a contract since May 31, and had voted to authorize a strike on June 2.
"The last thing we want is a strike, but Waste Management is using illegal bullying tactics to threaten our livelihood," said Brent Barrett, a Waste Management yard waste driver, in a statement released by the union.
The union said the National Labor Relations Board is investigating Waste Management for a number of alleged violations, including "bad-faith bargaining, coercing and direct dealing with its employees, threatening to retaliate against workers, and unilaterally changing working conditions."
However, a spokesperson for the company said Waste Management has tried times over to offer the workers a deal they would find acceptable.
Robin Freedman, the company's director of communications, said the two sides have been negotiating for the past four months, and the company has put forward 16 different proposals. The "last, best and final offer" was a 6-year contract that included an average annual pay of $98,000, a fully-funded employee pension and "a generous health and welfare benefits package," she said.
"Unfortunately, the union didn't like the final best offer, because they never even took it to the workers, to the members for them to take a look and vote on it," said Freedman. "We were truly hoping the union leadership would give the membership an opportunity to vote."
It was not immediately clear which part of the proposal the union found unacceptable. The two sides held their last negotiation meeting last month, Freedman said, but the proposal has been on the table for "quite some time."
The company's garbage truck drivers were not among those on strike; however, the union said those workers' contracts allow them to strike in solidarity. It was not immediately clear whether those workers would choose to exercise that option.
Waste Management said customers whose bins were not emptied as scheduled on Wednesday are urged to put out a double load next week at no extra cost.
"If you have not received recycling and yard waste pickup services today, you will not receive any," Freedman said.
All customers are urged to put out their bins on their regularly scheduled days.
"We will go on operating," said Freedman.
The company said if the strike continues for days, the company will implement its strike contingency plan, which prioritizes critical customers associated with public health including hospitals, nursing homes and daycare centers.
Both residential and commercial customers can check Waste Management's website for any changes or delays to their service.
I am a Garbage d\Driver from another area. Worked Seattle WM at one time. Just wanted to comment on the comments about dumbass drivers. I am a college grad but was smart enough to take this job do to the benifits and pay Company and ask for a ride along.MAN UP!
Can anyone understand how people (like me) feel, after being employed for 33+years, laid off and looking for a decent paying job for the last 2+years, unemployment gone, with retirement benefits and health care costs continually rising? You don't realize what you have UNTIL IT'S GONE. I'll be going to the transfer station myself, $40/mo.
 @sickofit Are you blaming the unions for being laid off from your 33+ year job?
I love the way the media almost always first promotes the management side of the dispute and glosses over the more complicated reasons for a strike. No one votes for a strike without good cause and careful thought. Most of the local newspapers paint striking workers as unexplainably greedy to reject a "generous" offer, then, if the strike continues, the real issues start to come out. It's almost as if KIRO, KOMO, KING, Times and PI are company shills.  But it goes on in every local labor dispute.
 @kana Well, to be fair - there is an element of the public that thinks everyone is overpaid - except themselves...and the uber-rich they worship...
No they don't "make" that much in salary. I'm married to a recycle driver who went out today at 10am. They bring home about $1,000-1,2000 per week in salary. Some OT but not every day or week. The rest is pension and benefits. They are not all uneducated idiots. It's an incredibly dangerous job, not easy to drive these trucks in our narrow, hilly streets of Seattle especially in snow or ice. They are simply asking for what garbage drivers earn for the same labor. As for the perception of it being easy due to the lifts, my husband is in and out of the truck hundreds of times a day to align the bin to the lift because you dont line it up, picking up junk people leave outside the bins, on the ground, and puts things back...even goes to get your recycle if you happen to forget to put it out. Try talking to your driver or working the job a week or two before making assumptions about these guys.
Holy crap, they make that much?Â
 @Charlie Mukilteo Try reading some of the posts from those who actually KNOW what they get paid...
98000 dollars to pick up garbage? WOW. Of course uneducated people dont realize that most college grads will not even make that much money. Living on planet poptart must be full of rainbows for them. UGH. Fire them all and hire someone who wants to work. Im tired of being held hostage to thugs.Â
 @snow surfer So anxious to fire anyone who doesn't hold your precise principles on what workers do or do not earn? You see... some of us see things very differently. Perhaps it's you that is the "thug" snow.
 @TruthinAdverts How dare you talk like that to the one person who actually IS underpaid!
I hate unions,but respect their right to strike -- here is hoping the company hires replacement workers tomorrow.
 @ThedudeabidesÂ
Do you "hate" the working conditions that unions made possible for you as well?
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The 40 hour week, OT, the right to take breaks to p!ss out the beer you had last night?
So Orcas you have it sized up that because the unions fought for workers rights in the past somehow they are entitled to higher pay, and benefits now than what the economy can support. This also means you are in favor of paying higher rates for utilities, products, and services? I donât hate unions, but I do hate what they have become and what they represent now. Unions have had their time and place, and now that time is gone.Â
 @Kodiak "Unions have had their time and place, and now that time is gone."
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Sure...and many feel that way about military vets once the war is over...
Do you really think the these rights will survive if there is no one to speak out in defense of the workers? Do you really expect government to continue to protect those rights when the business money says otherwise?
Just look at the efforts already being made to limit worker's rights - and you will see the future without the unions.
 @OrcasThunder I hate unions because I worked for one and saw a lot of lazy co-workers.
 @poisony Prove it.
 @TruthinAdverts Yeah - sorta like those people who are so proud to be Americans, expect all the RIGHTS of Americans (at the expense of other Americans who are 'not like him') - and yet scoff at the idea of actually serving America in ways other than in the military.
 @TruthinAdverts You just attempted to make a logical argument based on a hypothetical situation. Fallacy!
 @Charlie Mukilteo  @OrcasThunder I'm sure in Charlie's eyes everyone else was far less deserving of praise than him (all his "lazy" co-workers). I suspect if you had polled Charlie's coworkers, you would have received a very interesting and likely not too flattering image of Charlie. While Charlie complained in his bitterness about "his union", he enjoyed all the rights, wages, and working conditions the union had worked decades for. Here's a reality... there are lazy co-workers in all companies (regardless of whether they are union or not). Why... Charlie may well be one of them. You may have noticed in your own work-place... the laziest guys are the one's complaining about their co-workers all the time. Life's full of such little and humorous ironies.Â
 @Thedudeabides Why do you HATE unions? Because of what you've been told through your feeding tube?
To the uninformed out there. Local 117 represents recycle/yardwaste drivers. 174 is garbage drivers only.
Most of you hiding behind your keyboard have NO idea what it takes to drive these trucks and do the
PHYSICALÂ aspect of the job. You only see a truck parked on a big fat wide street with the toters in
perfect position. Not all routes or trucks are the same. As a former driver I have covered EVERY st.
in N. King /Snohomish county. I have trained many drivers only to find they were not capable of doing
the job. Tenured drivers were paid $16.85 hr. in Dec. 2003. About 25% more now = $21.25 hr. = $44200.
base.Not many rec. drivers work 600 hrs. OT.= + $19125. Yardwaste is different in that it is VERY Heavy
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 in the spring and early summer then tapers off so they get less OT. 174 Pension fund = $15000.+per yr.
117 P fund = squat comparedly. 174 wages = $28.00 hr.+.It takes a REAL MANÂ to work rain shine snow
to even hook these 250# + toters. $18000. for health care premiums.14 yrs there i saw over 100 guys quit
because they were not MAN ENOUGH to do the job! Get off your couch and go get that job! They are also
adding another7.65% for their part of social secuity. A few rec. guys make $2.50
 per hr.more.
 @Simbob57 news flash. I, like most people my age grew up working on farms. I got paid 3.50 an hour. I hardly believe 28 bucks an hour isnt enough to pick up garbage. Sorry but not buying it. In this day and age with high unemployment, that is a darn good wage. Maybe they should just be thankful they even have a job.Â
Well, I don't think anyone would tell you that you were stupid for working on a farm, or that you should have been grateful for just having a job on a farm. If you felt that what/where/how you were doing things was wrong and there was a way to fix it, I would encourage you to do so, not downgrade you and say "just put up with it, cause everyone else has to". C'mon, these guys are fighting for what they believe in. Â
@Simbob57 Would you like some cheese with that WHINE!
 @Archie Holmes  @Simbob57 He puts out the facts for you and you come up with "whine"? Dear heavens... how can one even have a discussion with people like you?
@Archie Holmes where do you get whinning from? @Simbob57 was just putting out numbers and comparing 117 and 174
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 @Simbob57 Thanks for laying out the actual numbers...
There are plenty of cities in the US that don't have contract garbage collection. There are multiple providers, you pick whomever you wish that provides the service you need at an agreeable price. Interesting concept for the union D-bags to understand but we, the public, are the real dumb ones for allowing our electeds to sshove this nonsense down our throats.
I would welcome that. We have no option BUT WM where we live, other than hauling it ourselves and we are no where close to a dump or transfer station.
 @HawkEye "There are multiple providers, you pick whomever you wish that provides the service you need at an agreeable price."
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And doesn't that result in multiple trucks/crews servicing each route - and more expenses for gas, etc.?
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Let's say that you pay the drivers of each truck half of what the union driver gets for the one truck here...but 5 companies have drivers on that route - you end up paying 2.5 times in wages.
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Even for a conservative, that's really not a good way to "save money"...
What a Waste!
I worked 32 years without a contract. Did just fine.
 @Goldwing Guy and you did just "fine" because unions had set prevailing wages and working conditions across the boards. The fact that you don't recognize this is utterly astounding
 @Goldwing Guy Good for you.. but life isn't lived on the edges.. it's lived in the middle...Â
 @Goldwing Guy As what?
I absolutely hate Waste Managment. If I could use someone else for my trash pick up, I would.
 @Smashquail You hate people because they show up and take away your trash? What's this world coming to.
 @Smashquail Why do you "HATE" Waste Mgt? Something you were told? They forgot to pick up your dead cats one day?
 @Smashquail Why? Because they pay an uneducated and unskilled driver $98k a year on average?
 @Middle Ground You have no Idea what there take home is....I'm so happy that you believe everything that you see on the news.
I'm curious how you know these drivers are unskilled?
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 @snow surfer C'mon.. that probably happened ONCE and now you're all outta whack over it....
Well, that I would call your particular garbage/recycler on. It's not all of them. I'm sorry to hear that. I would be upstet also.
 For me its not so much an issue of unskilled. Its them having a lack of respect. I see garbage cans knocked over BY THEM. Garbage sometimes laying on my car after they are done. They simply dont care about what or how they do it. Its not why I am paying them.Â
Show me the numbers. All of them broken down.
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I know what my numbers are, and these don't add up.
It's hard to believe that in this economy, a strike would be considered.
Well this stinks! If not now, give it more than a week then Seattle will really start to stink! =}
Strike, strike, strike!!!Â
Alright summer breakers. Grab your Dad's pickup truck & go out there make some money. Or raise it for your school, or whatever you guys wash cars for. Smack the union in the face.