Teamsters escalate Republic Services strike

Striking Teamsters at Republic Services, a Phoenix-based waste management company, this week say they are dramatically escalating their efforts by extending picket lines to Los Angeles and a major landfill in Ohio.

The strike, which launched July 1 in Boston, will now impact more than 2 million Los Angeles residents. In Youngstown, Ohio, trucks and trains carrying 12 million pounds of trash per day from New York City and New Jersey will be unable to unload at one of the nation’s largest landfills. After launching in Boston, the Republic Teamsters strike has widened to Massachusetts, Illinois, California, Georgia and Washington.

“It’s shocking, and increasingly disgusting, how far Republic Services is willing to push its workforce. Our members are everyday Americans performing essential services across our communities, but Republic is unwilling to offer workers good wages, decent benefits or a fair contract,” says Teamsters General President Sean M. O’Brien. “The American public needs to understand that Republic Services and its overpaid, corrupt executives own this strike. Their greed is forcing trash collectors and waste haulers across the country out into the street. We don’t want this garbage piling up. We want to return to work. But we refuse to be exploited.”

More than 2,000 Republic Teamsters are either on strike or honoring picket lines, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters says. The strike has resulted in major disruptions to waste collections for millions of Republic Services customers nationwide. Republic announced it would return to the mediation table on Tuesday, July 15, in Boston. The company says it is working to provide services to customers across the U.S. 

“Republic Services must come to its senses and end this strike with a strong offer for our members. If they fail in this simple task, picket line extensions will continue and garbage will accumulate in more states,” says Victor Mineros, director of the Teamsters Solid Waste and Recycling Division. “Republic is delaying the inevitable. Management knows there is only one way this fight ends—with a contract for every single Teamster who does the real, gross, unforgiving and brutally hard work that these executives could never pretend to do.”

Founded in 1903, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters represents 1.3 million people in the U.S., Canada and Puerto Rico.