CUMMING, Georgia — After 100 days on strike against the giant national waste hauling company Republic Services, some 30 Teamsters Local 728 members finally returned to work Oct. 16 after winning a new contract. They were the last group of Republic strikers to vote up a settlement, after union members in five cities went on strike in July. These workers won widespread support when they set up pickets at Republic operations in other cities.
Like Teamsters in the other four cities, strikers here won wage increases, improved work rules and health benefits, and other gains, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters said.
“In addition to a much-needed wage increase, the company agreed to start paying us time and a half on holidays,” Jerome Noel told this Militant worker-correspondent Oct. 19. “Up to now, we just got straight time, even if we were working on Christmas Day!” This was the second union contract Cumming drivers have won since voting to join the Teamsters.
“The strike really brought us together,” said Noel, who has worked at Republic for 10 years. “Before, the commercial drivers and the residential drivers didn’t have that much contact. But for 100 days, we all walked the picket line together and really got to know each other. It made the union stronger.
“The support and solidarity we got from other Teamster locals and other unions was important for us and helped us hold out,” he added.
“Republic’s greed and arrogance were no match for Teamsters’ strength and solidarity,” IBT General President Sean M. O’Brien said Oct. 15. “The company tried to drag out this strike, torment our members, and disrupt communities.”
The four other locals settled with Republic earlier, but the bosses in Cumming wouldn’t budge — until now.