Trash haulers overwhelmingly approve contract

Published 8:12 am Monday, May 3, 2010

SEATTLE — Garbage haulers have voted overwhelmingly to approve a new five-year contract with Waste Management.

Officials say 96 percent of the Teamsters Union voters approved the pact late Sunday.

Waste Management hauls trash for about a million customers in Snohomish and King counties and its employees have been without a contract for a month. They earlier went on a two-day strike.

The union says the new contract calls for yearly wage increases over the next five years. Top wages for the workers are around $60,000 a year.

The hauling company is calling the vote “very good news.”

Information from: The Seattle Times, www.seattletimes.com