By Adam Swift
While municipal trash pickup in Revere has not been impacted by the nearly month-long Republic Services strike, the company does have one of its facilities in the city.
Monday night, the city council unanimously supported sending a letter to Jon Vander Ark, CEO of Republic Services, relative to the failure of Republic Services to settle a contract with Teamsters Local 25.
The Teamsters Local 25 began the strike on July 1, demanding better pay, benefits, and labor protections. Republic has contracts with 14 municipalities throughout the state for trash pickup, as well as private contracts with a number of local businesses and restaurants throughout the region. Republic has used non-union labor to collect trash throughout those 14 communities, although the pickups have often been delayed.
“Our city of over 60,000, sits just outside of our state’s capital and has historically been a working class city,” the letter from the council states. “Home to the country’s first public beach, we pride ourselves on the public services and spaces and the private partnerships that exist here. However, of late, we are wholefully disappointed that a company, your company, which functions within our jurisdiction has turned its back on the blue collar values that make our city great.”
The councillors stated that they have been paying close attention to the contract negotiations between Republic and its workers, represented by Teamster’s Local 25.
“Many of us have walked the strike line with them in the past few weeks and heard loud and clear some of their concerns, which we share, and what you are offering at the table: health insurance hell-bent on denying and delaying quality affordable care, some of the lowest wages in the waste management industry, and the creation of a dystopian surveillance state within your own company with the intent of retaliating against workers and sowing division and distrust amongst your rank and file workers,” the letter states.
The council further states that the inequitable conditions the Republic negotiation team has forced on workers through the contract negotiations has led to an increasingly alarming public health concern as hospital and restaurant dumpsters overflow, rodents overtake streets across Eastern Massachusetts, and homes in the region go days or even weeks without waste pick up.
“Now, these issues may not mean much to you and your $13-million compensation package, roughly 150 times more than the compensation package you offer your average Massachusetts worker, but for us here in the City of Revere and to the members of Teamsters Local 25, resolving these issues is about dignity in the workplace and for our community,” the council states. “We urge you to respect the work and the dignity of your workers and return to the table prepared to do right by the hardworking members of Local 25 and the communities they serve and settle this contract immediately by addressing these issues.”
In Boston, Mayor Michelle Wu also recently sent a letter to Republic Services focusing on the health and safety issues created by the delays from Republic in picking trash from its commercial customers.
“City health and safety code enforcement personnel have also reported interactions with businesses throughout the city that are struggling—paying for trash pickup service under contracts with Republic Services that they are not receiving, while also being assessed fines for trash violations on a daily basis that are making already tight margins unsustainable,” Wu stated.
In a reply to Wu’s letter, a Republic spokesperson said in a statement that any delays in service lie squarely at the feet of Teamsters Local 25.
“We are working hard to provide service, but the Teamsters continue to prevent and block our access to many customer sites,” the statement read. “The Teamsters also continue to harass, threaten and physically intimidate our employees, and vandalize our collection vehicles.”
