The escalation comes a week after Local 25 went on strike against Republic Services in the Boston area.
By Jacob Wallace, Waste Dive
The International Brotherhood of Teamsters says more than 2,000 Republic Services workers represented by the union are either striking or honoring picket lines around the country, a rapid escalation of a dispute that kicked off in the Boston area last week.
The union is accusing Republic, the second-largest waste company in the country, of mistreating and underpaying its workers. In a news release Wednesday, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters said it will “go to war against Republic Services.”
“Republic Services has been threatening a war with American workers for years — and now, they’ve got one,” Teamsters General President Sean M. O’Brien said in a statement. “The Teamsters have had it with Republic. We will flood the streets and shut down garbage collection in state after state. Workers are uniting nationwide, and we will get the wages and benefits we’ve earned, come hell or high water.”
The escalation comes after Teamsters Local 25, which serves the greater Boston area, announced it would go on strike on July 1. Since then, other chapters in California, Illinois, Georgia, and Washington have announced they are on strike, while picket lines have extended to Seattle and the Bay Area in California.
Twenty-two percent of Republic Services’ workers are unionized, the highest rate among large, publicly traded waste companies. Republic has maintained in statements that it is offering workers competitive labor contracts. For the Boston area contract, the company said its most recent contract offer would have included a 39% increase over five years and a 14% increase in the first year.
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