Dive Brief:
- Employees at a Waste Management recycling facility in Oakland, CA are on strike.
- The Bay Area workers have been picketing since Friday, and have since been joined by additional union workers striking at the company’s Alameda County, CA headquarters.
- Workers request that the company’s management treat union members in the recycling sector the same way it treats other unions employed by the firm that have already signed labor agreements.
Dive Insight:
Joe Camero, the spokesperson for Waste Management of Alameda County, said that curbside recycling collections are continuing during the strike; however, the workers have refused to sort the waste. Camero said that the materials are piling up on site.
Craig Merrilees, the spokesperson for the workers that are part of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) Local 6, said the two sides are in dispute about the amount Waste Management should contribute to health insurance rate increases. The company requests workers to cover $35 per month towards their coverage, while the old contract stipulated that worker contribution would be capped at $25 per month, and will cover rate increases up to 6%.
In addition, recycling division workers are requesting a contract that includes guaranteed wage increases. The increases were approved by the Oakland City Council in September, which also recently awarded Waste Management a $1 billion hauling contract.
Healthcare disputes have prompted disagreements between the waste industry and unions before. In June, Teamsters in Mobile, AL staged a “mock protest” in order to highlight their contention with a proposal on behalf of Republic Services to alter workers' health insurance polices.