Seattle-area garbage truck drivers reject new contract proposals

SEATTLE – Teamsters Local 174, representing 600 Seattle-area garbage-truck drivers, on Saturday rejected four-year contract proposals from Allied Waste Industries Inc. and Waste Management.

No decision was reached Saturday on whether to return to the bargaining table or to strike, said the local’s secretary-treasurer, Dan Scott.

“Our strike committees will be meeting at 9 a.m. tomorrow, and we’ll be exploring all our options,” Scott said.

He declined to provide vote totals.

Calls seeking comment from Allied Waste and Waste Management were not immediately returned.

It had been hoped that the tentative contracts, reached by negotiators April 15, would eliminate the threat of a strike. Service for some 2 million households and thousands of businesses in King and Snohomish counties is at stake.

“We’re prepared to deal with any interruption in service,” said Marty McOmber, spokesman for Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels. “Obviously we’re disappointed that the contracts have not been approved. We hope the two sides will get together as quickly as possible to continue negotiations.”

The city’s agreements with the two companies require them to continue to provide trash-hauling services regardless of any labor disruption, McOmber said. “If they fail to do that, the city can seek significant damages from the companies that will add up very quickly. The burden will fall on them.”

The proposed contracts, negotiated separately, were very similar, Scott said. Major sticking points were health care and overtime.

“Excessive overtime is a complicated issue,” he said. “There are different ways to get around it,” through additional staffing or route revisions as route demands grow and change.

“We understand that some of our workers actually prefer overtime,” Scott said. The goal is a balance, providing it where it’s wanted and removing it where it’s not.

Longer hours can jeopardize safety, he said. “The second half of the issue is that we, like most people, work to live. We don’t live to work. We want quality of life. We want to have control over some days – like if my son has graduation, I want to have a reasonable chance of attending.”