PEABODY, Mass. — “Republic doesn’t care about the customers or the workers,” striker Afri Ituen told the Militant as he was finishing his shift on the Teamsters picket line here Sept. 13. When he’s working, Ituen’s job is to toss the trash in the back of the trucks as they move down the streets. “I lift and throw literally tons of garbage a day, often clocking more than 30,000 steps,” he said. “Of course, I get that many steps or more walking the picket line.”
Some 400 workers at Republic Services in the Boston area, members of Teamsters Local 25, have been on strike since July 1. Another 30 Republic workers in Cumming, Georgia, are also on strike. All told more than 2,000 other Teamsters at Republic have struck in cities around the country, either over contracts or in solidarity.
The striking Republic workers were the highlight of Boston’s Labor Day Parade. Local 25 union President Tom Mari talked about the strike and then striker Kenny Sullivan spoke. “As long as it takes, we are going to be out there, shoulder to shoulder. As long as it takes, we are going to win. Union solidarity. That’s what Labor Day is all about,” Sullivan said.
“We just want what’s right and what’s equal pay for the union,” striker Ian Spence told WCVB News at the Labor Day action. Republic Services workers in Massachusetts are demanding the same pay as workers get who do similar jobs at smaller companies in the area.
Republic is the second-largest trash hauling company in the United States. It made some $2 billion in profits in 2024. CEO Jon Vander Ark’s total compensation in 2024 was $13 million, up from the $8.5 million he got in 2021, the first year he ran the company. The company says it is spending some $100,000 per day on extra security for scab drivers.
“Some people have had to get other Teamsters jobs, but no one has crossed the picket lines,” Scott Rancati told the Militant. He was interested to hear about the fight by flight attendants at Air Canada to be paid for all the time they’re working, including before the plane departs, after it lands, and during flight delays.
Some of the “replacement workers” the company has brought in from nonunion Republic facilities, Rancati said, have filed a lawsuit against the company making them do some 90 minutes of unpaid work each day. “We invited them to join our picket lines and urged them to make sure they were getting paid,” he said.
Rancati said some of the replacement workers were getting into accidents because they’re not used to maneuvering the trucks in Boston’s narrow alleys. One hit a young woman and sent her to the hospital. The woman’s mother, Beth Kontos, is the retired president of the American Federation of Teachers in Massachusetts.
“As a union member, I have walked the picket line with Teamsters Local 25 members in Peabody,” Kontos told the Peabody Weekly News. “They deserve a good contract, and our communities deserve safe, quality service with experienced Teamster drivers.”
The union has also organized mobile pickets that trail the garbage trucks doing struck work through the neighborhoods, making sure they’re working safely. This slows them down, Rancati said.
This was the second year an outdoor action replaced the traditional Labor Day Breakfast, an annual gathering of Democratic Party politicians and union officials. Last year striking hotel workers picketed the Park Plaza Hotel, where the breakfast had been scheduled. It was reorganized outdoors as a solidarity event that included the hotel strikers and their supporters.
Afri Ituen said he talks with the younger workers about the importance of the strike and solidarity. “We’re union brothers and we have to stand up for each other, I tell them.”