WM, Teamsters reach agreement in Illinois

Members of Teamsters International Local 50, based in Swansea, Illinois, have unanimously ratified a new five-year collective bargaining agreement with Houston-based Waste Management Inc. (WM), according to the labor union.

Local 50 says the new contract was ratified unanimously by union members who voted. It provides commercial and residential drivers with an immediate 18 percent wage increase followed by an additional 3.5 percent increase each of the following years, says the union.

“We won big pay raises in this contract and stuck together through the entire process,” says Ryan Shaw, a residential driver and shop steward with Local 50.

The union member remarks, “Waste Management unsuccessfully attempted to decertify our union last year,” and adds, “We took the energy of that decertification campaign and brought it to the bargaining table.”

Comments Pat Nichols, president of Local 50, “Our members stood their ground, and demanded from Waste Management the pay and respect they deserve. I want to thank Chuck Stiles, Larry Daugherty, and the Teamsters Solid Waste Division for their assistance in securing such a lucrative contract for our members.”

Teamsters Local 50 represents more than 2,000 workers in a wide variety of industries in southern Illinois, according to the union chapter.

Swansea has fewer than 15,000 residents but it is within St. Clair County, Illinois, which has more than 250,000 people.