BOSTON — “We risk our lives every day on the streets of Boston while the company gets rich,” Daniel Berrios told the Militant July 19. He was one of a dozen workers on the Teamsters picket line in the Roxbury neighborhood of Boston that day.
Some 450 workers in the Boston area, members of Local 25, are on strike against Republic Services. The company, the nation’s second-largest trash hauling company, raked in $2 billion in profits last year. Garbage collection is one of the most dangerous industries in the U.S.
The strike, which began in this area July 1, has spread across the country. As of July 9 some 2,000 Teamster-organized sanitation workers across the country were on strike. Some are fighting a contract battle, others are out in solidarity.
“We played a big role in spreading the strike,” Milton Despina, a Teamsters field representative, said. I met him at one of the picket lines in Peabody. “We sent workers and union staffers out to California and other places to explain to local union officials and the ranks why we went out and urge them to do the same,” he said.
One big boost for strikers was when Local 25 members drove to and began picketing at the Republic landfill in Youngstown, Ohio, shutting it down. Workers there refused to cross the picket line. This means trucks and trains carrying 12 million pounds of trash daily from New York City and New Jersey are unable to unload.
The next morning in Peabody, garbage truck driver Shane Alexson emphasized the same point. “This is new,” he said. “We went out to other locals to talk to them about the strike.” Craig Honts, Socialist Workers Party candidate for lieutenant governor in New Jersey, who joined this reporter in bringing solidarity to the picket line, explained how meat packers on strike at Hormel Foods in Minnesota did this in the 1980s.
“That’s exactly what we have to do,” Alexson said. “It’s about workers communicating with each other.” Despina said he thought about 800 workers had joined the strike as a result of visits across the country by members of Local 25.
The two main issues are wages and medical insurance, workers explained. “There are a couple of family-owned trash management companies that pay their workers $5 to $6 an hour more than we get,” Berrios said. “We’re just asking to be brought up to their level.”
“It can seem like we make a lot of money,” Alexson added. “But Boston is one of the most expensive cities in the country to live in.”
Working conditions are also an issue. “It’s hot in the summer and cold in the winter,” Junior Sanchez, who picks up trash for recycling, said. “They bought new trucks that hold more,” laborer Afri Ituen, who tosses garbage into the trucks, literally tons every day, added. “That just means I have to handle more garbage.”
The company also wants to put cameras in all the trucks to keep an eye on the drivers, Despina said. “They want to be better able to find reasons to discipline workers.”
Republic is trying to keep the struck facilities in Massachusetts running by using nonunion workers from their Tyngsborough and Haverhill facilities. The striking Teamster members have been reaching out to these workers. Alexson said he met with workers at Haverhill. “About half the workers have signed union cards there,” he said. “If those workers decide to go union, it will be a real blow to the company.”
Contract campaign
Despina said that the vote to strike was 90% in favor and not a single union member has crossed the picket line. He explained workers had agreed to small pay raises in the last two contracts. “This time, we went on a campaign for eight months, preparing union members for the possibility that we would have to strike to get a decent contract,” he said.
Alexson explained this in more detail the next morning. “Especially the contract right at the beginning of the COVID pandemic, we prioritized keeping our pensions, including for new workers. We didn’t think we could get more,” he said. “But we told the company we would have to catch up on wages with the next contract.”
Some talks took place July 18, but went nowhere. Following another wasted bargaining session — where Republic took a five-hour caucus and then returned without any increase in its wage proposal and refused to budge from its position not to agree to the more comprehensive Teamsters Health Insurance Plan — Local 25 President Tom Mari released a public statement saying the company was “going through the motions with no intent to reach an agreement.”
The company responded by claiming the union “is focused on disinformation and disruption,” including a “pattern of criminal behavior.”
Republic has filed a lawsuit against the union, seeking a temporary restraining order on their picketing.
The workers are determined. “This strike has brought us together,” Berrios said. “A lot of people visit the picket lines.” Picketing workers in both Roxbury and Peabody told of visits from members of Teamsters Local 25 who work elsewhere. Teamsters from Connecticut, teachers, firemen, representatives from the Boston Labor Council, nonunion sanitation workers, politicians and others also joined them.
“Without that we’d be much weaker. But with it we can keep fighting until we win,” Berrios said.