Teamsters Battle Republic
Tensions between the union and the trash giant have reached an apex
The Teamsters have declared “war” on trash giant Republic Services, which Bill Gates effectively controls with a 35.1 percent stake. After IBT President Sean O’Brien’s home local, Local 25 in Boston, walked off the job earlier this month, now 2,000 Teamsters are walking or honoring picket lines, from Massachusetts to Georgia, to Orange County, CA, to the Bay Area and to the Seattle area, Waste Dive reports.
“Republic Services has been threatening a war with American workers for years — and now, they’ve got one,” O’Brien said. “Republic abuses and underpays workers across the country. They burn massive profits and funnel money to undeserving, corrupt executives. The Teamsters have had it with Republic. We will flood the streets and shut down garbage collection in state after state. Workers are uniting nationwide, and we will get the wages and benefits we’ve earned, come hell or high water.”
Of course, the Trump-controlled NLRB and Republican-packed courts make winning this strike significantly harder—an outcome that O’Brien helped to bring about with his groveling speech at the RNC last year.
In Philadelphia, where sanitation workers recently went on strike —alongside thousands of other blue-collar municipal workers—recriminations are flowing after the Laborers and IATSE crossed picket lines to set up a concert for Mayor Cherelle Parker, which LL Cool J and Jazmine Sullivan had pulled out of to respect the strike.
“The laborers and the stagehands worked the Wawa Welcome America,” Teamsters Local 107 president Bill Hamilton told the Philadelphia Inquirer. “If employers think that they can utilize one union and not another, there’s no reason for unions. … It’s a mistake that they crossed the line, and I think it has a lot to do with politics.” Hamilton’s comments were echoed by Philadelphia Federation of Teachers President Art Steinberg, who told the Inky that “scabbing is deplorable, traitorous conduct, and cannot be tolerated by organized labor for one second…At a time when workers’ hard-fought right to organize is under direct fire from the highest office in the country, labor should be standing shoulder to shoulder to withstand any and all attacks on our very existence.”
The Philadelphia municipal workers strike ended after eight days with the workers achieving little of their demands, likely heading into a contentious ratification vote and the potential of another strike.
News and Views
The lawfare continues….an appeals court has ruled that Trump can disregard collective bargaining agreements at numerous federal agencies while litigation proceeds over union protections for federal workers.
New Jersey unions representing 140,000 workers are rallying against dramatic proposed hikes in health care costs for state employees.
EPA workers are being retaliated against for trying to protect the health of the American people.
Today’s Win
Canada’s Porter Airlines pilots are unionizing.