Waste Management workers go back to routes
Published 11:27 pm Thursday, April 22, 2010
BOTHELL — Waste Management customers should put their cans and bins out today.
Garbage haulers said they’ll go back to collecting trash beginning this morning after Waste Management officials agreed to return to the negotiating table.
The union and the company haven’t agreed on a contract.
Workers walked off the job with their routes half-finished Wednesday morning and formed picket lines in front of company sites in Snohomish and King counties.
Workers went on strike because company officials refused to come to the bargaining table, said Michael Gonzales, spokesman for Teamsters Local 174.
He said the company tacked on 12 changes to its “best, last and final” offer and then refused to negotiate those points. That’s a violation of labor law, he said.
“They weren’t bargaining in good faith,” Gonzales said.
The union has filed nine complaints against Waste Management with the National Labor Relations Board, a federal agency.
Company officials said it was the union that didn’t respond to their requests to meet.
“We are glad the Teamsters have announced that they will return to work tomorrow, but feel that this unfortunate situation could have been avoided entirely had the union simply responded to our earlier requests to meet,” company spokeswoman Jackie Lang said in a prepared statement.
Thursday morning, the company delivered a letter to the union that committed to good faith bargaining and making an offer to continue discussions, Lang said.
By lunchtime, the union had agreed to call off the strike. The two agreed to meet Monday morning.
Waste Management serves 75,000 homes and businesses in parts of unincorporated Snohomish County as well as Arlington, Marysville, Mill Creek, Mountlake Terrace, Lynnwood, Brier, Mukilteo and parts of south Everett.
Recycle bins and garbage cans remained unemptied on curbs Thursday, as Waste Management officials scrambled to find workers to collect trash.
Customers whose trash was not picked up should pull in their carts and put it back outside next week on the normal collection day. Waste Management said it will pick up double the amount for no extra charge.
