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Officials are fed up as trash strike hits one month without negotiations
With students returning to class soon, an overflowing dumpster at Malden High School prompted a fresh wave of concern.
As of Monday, it has been exactly one month since waste management company Republic Services and striking Teamsters met at the negotiating table in the hopes of ending a work stoppage that is impacting communities across Massachusetts.
With the labor dispute now in its eighth week and there still being no signs of a breakthrough or even continued negotiations, local officials are growing more frustrated.
The latest flashpoint occurred at Malden High School, where an overflowing dumpster is causing alarm just over a week before students are set to head back to class. City Councilor Karen Colón Hayes says she is hearing from concerned parents and is working to address the issue with Republic and the city’s Department of Public Works.
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Some students and staff have been using the building over the summer, contributing to the trash there. But Hayes also thinks that some fed up residents decided to dump their trash at the school. When the school year starts on Aug. 27, the trash problem there will only get worse.
“The fact that it looks like that now, with just a small amount of people there, is concerning,” Hayes told Boston.com Monday.
Similar scenes have been playing out around Massachusetts since members of Teamsters Local 25 began their strike on July 1. They say that Republic, a Phoenix-based company that generates around $16 billion a year in revenue, refuses to give them the wages, benefits, and labor protections they deserve.
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Bargaining sessions throughout the first few weeks of the strike were marked by plenty of finger-pointing, accusations of bad-faith negotiating, and even allegations of criminality. A federal mediator stepped in multiple times to help broker a deal, but talks continued to break down. The two sides last met on July 18, and there are no future meetings scheduled at the moment.
Fourteen Massachusetts communities, mostly located on the North Shore, contract with Republic to handle curbside waste removal. But the company also has thousands of commercial customers, such as restaurants and apartment complexes, in places like Boston and elsewhere. Republic is relying on non-union replacement workers to fill in, but many say that service has been sporadic at best.
Local worries
In Gloucester, Republic has not picked up any curbside recycling since the strike began, Mayor Greg Verga said. Residents are being asked to drop their recycling at a facility on Poplar Street, and DPW workers are working well to handle the situation, Verga said.
Still, he is sensing a growing “fatigue” among workers who are being diverted from their regular jobs in order to process the recycling and handle other strike-related problems. Other city services are starting to be affected. In recent days, Gloucester canceled its monthly scrap metal recycling drop-off because of these conditions, Verga said.
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With the lack of negotiations, Verga is worried that public health could be harmed.
“They need to get back to the table. This potentially could become a health and safety issue,” he said.
This is already happening in Malden, according to Hayes. Some residents are finding any dumpster they can to put their trash into, but many are just leaving their waste out on the street. The city’s rodent problem is getting worse, and gusts of wind are blowing trash into streets and yards.
“At this point, they’re sick of taking their trash in, putting it out, taking it in again. So now I’ve noticed that people are just leaving it out there,” Hayes said. “It’s pretty nasty looking out on the street.”
She worries the current situation is rolling back years of progress encouraging residents to recycle. Since trash is being picked up more frequently than recycling, people are simply throwing their recyclables into the trash so that it can be disposed of more quickly.
Complicating matters further, an ongoing infrastructure improvement project is necessitating the closure of Malden’s DPW yard on weekdays. Instead, the city is having residents drop off recycling at the Ferryway School on certain days.
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The replacement workers being tasked with trash pickup in Malden are unfamiliar with the city’s streets, sometimes getting lost or stuck in narrow roadways, Hayes said.
“We need to get the teamsters back to work so they can feed their families, but also because they are trained and they know what they are doing,” she said.
Local officials are taking action. In Boston, Mayor Michelle Wu announced that the city would impose fines on Republic for health and safety code violations. Verga joined 10 other leaders of affected communities in writing a letter to Republic last week, notifying the company that they intend to withhold portions of their next payments for the costs incurred by the lack of services.
“They haven’t delivered,” Verga said of Republic.
‘Both sides need to get to the table’
Last week, Gov. Maura Healey accused Republic’s leadership of not returning her messages and called on the company to end an “untenable” situation.
A spokesperson for the Teamsters said Monday that Republic has also ignored calls from the federal mediator.
The Teamsters are fighting for their ability to enroll in an alternative health insurance plan that they say is more comprehensive, but Republic is refusing to meet face-to-face until this demand is dropped, according to the spokesperson for the Teamsters. A Republic spokesperson said that this claim was inaccurate.
The union filed an unfair labor practice charge against Republic with the National Labor Relations Board last month.
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“Their demand to withdraw a proposal currently enjoyed by hundreds of Teamsters in the same industry before they return to the table is another violation of the National Labor Relations Act,” Teamsters Local 25 President Tom Mari said in a statement. “Apparently, Republic would rather spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on their lawyers fighting Local 25 at the NLRB and in Federal Court than sitting across from us and bargaining in good faith.”
Republic maintains that it is ready to meet with Teamsters “when they are serious about reaching an agreement.” But the union is offering no flexibility in any of its demands and not bargaining in good faith, a Republic spokesperson said Monday.
The company says that it has offered a compensation package that “far surpasses local competitors” and “continued zero-premium healthcare.”
“Any delays in service lie squarely at the feet of Teamsters Local 25. We currently have the ability to service all customers in Greater Boston, but the Teamsters continue to illegally block our trucks and access to many customer sites,” a Republic spokesperson said.
While the dispute continues, local leaders like Verga are left on the sidelines, pleading with those directly involved in the negotiations to find a deal that works.
“Both sides need to get to the table. I’m not going to make a judgment call about who is the cause for the lack of meeting, but whoever it is, you know who you are,” he said. “So, just put your pride aside, get to the table, and have a conversation because this has to be resolved.”
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