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Garbage collection service provided by Allied Waste for local residents and businesses that normally have their trash and recycling picked up on Wednesdays, Thursdays or Fridays has been rescheduled this week, thanks to a two-day strike by garbage workers in San Mateo County.
Menlo Park’s Deputy City Manager Kent Steffens issued a notice Wednesday afternoon (Aug. 25) that the strike will affect city residents on Wednesday’s, Thursday’s and Friday’s garbage-collection routes.
Collection service for Wednesday customers has been rescheduled for Friday; service for Thursday customers will be provided on Saturday; Friday customers should haul their garbage out to the curb on Sunday, according to Mr. Steffens.
“At this point, we expect service to be restored to its normal schedule beginning Monday, August 30,” he wrote in the notice.
The 48-hour strike was called to protest stalled contract negotiations with Allied Waste Industries, a company spokeswoman told Bay City News Service.
Thirteen workers at the Ox Mountain Landfill near Half Moon Bay are on strike over talks that have stalled since their contract expired at the end of last year, according to Allied Waste spokeswoman Peg Mulloy.
An additional 250 workers, mostly truck drivers and garbage collectors based at the company’s San Carlos facility, walked off the job in solidarity with their 13 colleagues.
Customers with questions about the rescheduled service can call Allied Waste at 650-592-2411.
–I Bay City News contributed to this report.
I have an idea. Since California’s unemployment is greater than 12%, how about everyone who is dissatisfied with their pay and benefits quit their job, and then we rehire somebody who is unemployed? Seems like a win-win all around.
I am one of the drivers that was basically forced to walk out for the 2 days, did I want to…… No, but to cross the line is pretty serious in terms of penalties levied on those who do, so I chose the lesser of 2 evils and went home, you do not know the specifics of the contract so you really have no valid opinion, from what I do know I do not blame the Ox Mntn employees, and read the story a little closer they have been negociating fo quite some time without a contract agreement
Mike, even though many of us don’t know the details & aren’t as informed about union activities as you, it still is hard to feel much sympathy, given the current economy. Remember when BART employees were threatening to strike about their contract? Sheesh, many people just wanted a decent paying job at that time – they’d settle for one w/out benefits, w/the standard at-will employment contract & no vacation.
Hey, I’d be happy if the garbage men in my area wouldn’t block our shared driveway w/all the empties when they’re done having the machines empty them. I look forward to the day I don’t have to complain about that.
“residents and businesses that normally have their trash and recycling picked up today (Wednesday) will have to haul their containers back to the yard and roll them back out to the curb on Friday,”
I sure won’t roll mine back – they will stay on the curb until they are picked up. The rules are clear – put them out on the night before the scheduled collection and move them back when they are EMPTY.
I do sympathize with the garbage workers. You can’t compare the Bart strike threat to this. Bart was in a budget deficit of millions of dollars so it is easier to understand why they couldn’t give in to the employees demands. Allied Waste is a profitable company who can afford to pay the employees what they rightly deserve for the tough job they do every day. Do you think Allied will reduce our rates by saving on the union contract? Or do you think they will pad their pockets with a nice bonus at the end of the year? Give them what they deserve!
And what is it that they deserve? What’s so hard about their job?
So let me get this straight. There are 13 workers who are in contract negotiations with Allied Waste (presumably they are still working and negotiations continue) and got 250 of their union members (who presumably do have a negotiated contract) to go on strike. If the hope is to get the public upset because the garbage isn’t picked up and therefore to put pressure on Allied Waste to make concessions, my opinion is not positive toward the workers. I’m no particular fan of Allied waste, but there are mechanisms for negotiating and this looks like playing dirty. If anything, national policy is creating much more favorable playing fields for unions, in which case delay may actually benefit the union workers. The strike of workers who are not involved in the negotiations strikes me as abusive behavior. Frankly, I’d love to see Allied terminate the 13 and fill the slots with people who are unemployed. If the landfill workers have an issue, there are far better ways to gain the sympathy of the public than forcing (based on the drivers post from able) others to “raise a stink” on their behalf.
The last thing I remember is that things which involved labor and jobs nobody but our Mexican workers would take…LEGAL BTW,all have gone by the wayside since so many of those workers have decided they have had it with being treated like slaves and legalities
In talking to a very wonderful Mexican employee of mine who had all of his papers and who worked for me for many years and has several relatives who were trying to get citizenship yet did work as underlings because they were studying English and were here on renewed work permits. Then,were booted with the new laws.
The attitude of most Mexicans, legal and non legal, is incredibly tough and they are not the stereotypes portrayed in films and in print…..
Now, according to this employee, the plan is to return after seeing hard working relatives and friends, BOOTED out as ILLEGALS.They do not want to take any more crap and you may notice that there are fewer laborers for construction, maids, nannies,gardeners, and all those who had more in mind for their futures than to serve we Americanos..I found them to be the best workers with good attitudes.
There are some highly educated Emiliano Zapata types, with American Passports and citizenship, who are not taking this as if it were a siesta.There is something brewing and I was not privy to what it is.
I support those who are called “ILLEGALS” who I know are hard working and honest who are rethinking what it means to become an “American” when they have lived with the EXACT same type of corruption among the SUPER RICH in politically CORRUPT Mexico.
They are angry, and rightfully so, and thousands are going back to Mexico and negotiating with other countries. I think you know who they may be.
Meanwhile, don’t blame unions, or defiant workers with brown skin.
America is not a place to look for salvation even for Americanos. I have a rich neighbor who pays two full time gardeners (one Anglo)The principal one is a naturalized citizen. His three children are American, having been born here, and two are studying law at Stanford and the third is at M.I.T.
People should be reminded that the Mexican culture goes back many centuries before the arrival of the gringo and gold.
Amnesiacs, your post is really hard to follow. What do undocumented workers and Mexicans have to do w/the garbage strike?
Concerned Parent – your post is great, plus it has a lot of wonderful puns.
Sigh. I miss BFI. They never blocked the driveways, threw garbage cans or left garbage strewn in the street, a la AW.
Concerned parent- What you don’t understand is that the 250 workers aren’t on strike. But by being part of a union, there are rules that state that they are not supposed to cross a picket line. I worked for unions for years and things can sometimes get ugly. I am sure that the 250 drivers would rather be working, picking up your garbage, rather than sitting at home not getting paid. But one thing about union workers, they will stand up for other union workers. Next time, it might be the other way around.
Does anyone know the EXACT details that these 13 employees are hung up on? i.e demands to salary, benefits, etc.
Might shed some light for us to better formulate an opinion, and put things into PERSPECTIVE relative to the 10%+ people in CA who would kill for those positions.
Thanks.
Joe,
I don’t particualrly disagree with you but I think you make my points for me. Whether the garbage workers are on strike or not, the effect (missing scheduled pickups though they apparently do have a contract and presumably are continuing to be paid) appears to be the same. The fact that union members don’t cross picket lines is the problem. What it means is that a small dispute (13 people) gets magnified independent of the opinions of the 250 workers. This is a set up for work stoppages over any little thing which is not what we need these days (or any days).
Didn’t our council recently approve a 30% increase in trash collection rates?
In any case,we should not let the unions hold us hostage. Someone should publish the home addresses of the people behind this so we can deliver our trash to them!
Here in EPA, the stupid garbage trucks just picked up trash. Only of course, there wasn’t much out on the curb because we’ve all been told they were coming *tomorrow*, not today.
Hmm…..That’s because the instruction (by Kent Steffens) to pull back the cans was in direct opposition by the garbage collection agency to leave them there…….