Garbage strike over for now in Lynnwood, Edmonds and Snohomish

EVERETT — A garbage strike that left residents in Edmonds, Lynnwood and Snohomish without trash collection for two weeks is over — at least for now.

Republic Services posted on its website on Sunday that it was resuming service for the communities in Snohomish County as well as others in King County effective Monday.

“We appreciate the community’s patience and look forward to resuming regular service,” the trash company said.

The website statement said that customers will be served on their normal collection day and should leave out all containers.

But Matthew McQuaid, a spokesman for International Brotherhood of Teamsters, said whether the pickets return and stop trash collection again will be up to Republic Services. He said the company must resume fair negotiations with workers in Lacey and Boston.

“We took down the pickets as a gesture of good faith,” he said.

McQuaid said the union and its workers didn’t have any issues with their contracts in Snohomish County. Instead, he said workers walked off their jobs in sympathy with 450 workers in the Boston area and another 20 in Lacey.

McQuaid said the workers had been unsuccessfully negotiating for new contracts with Republic Services since March.

Republic Services officials did not respond to requests for comment.

Elected officials in both Edmonds and Lynnwood said they had been receiving dozens of complaints from residents about trash piling up in their houses and apartments because of the strike.

Lynnwood Council Member Josh Binda said he and three other council members drove two pick-up trucks on Saturday and picked up the trash of around 70 Lynnwood residents. He said some of the residents, who were elderly or disabled, did not have transportation to get the trash to a disposal facility.

“People were happy to see us,” he said. “The trash was accumulating.”

He said the trash was taken to a garbage facility in Lynnwood.

Randy Diamond: 425-339-3097; randy.diamond@heraldnet.com.