Garbage labor dispute in the United States

Trash bags overflow in the trash can. Flies buzzing in the air. Smelling smoke in the summer sun – This summer, an ugly chaos plagued the U.S. cities from coast to coast.

Some employees of the Republic Services Corporation – a Fortune 500 private waste management company, have signed municipal contracts with municipal contracts since the strike three weeks ago.

Teamsters Union, who represents the company’s workers, said they were well paid less than other health workers and were making greater gains. But the company said the union was reluctant to compromise, and the relationship was rotten, and so was the garbage.

The strike began on July 1, serving 14 communities in the Greater Boston area on July 25 and spread to several other U.S. cities: Manteca, California; Ottawa, Illinois; Cumming, Georgia; and Lacey, Washington. More and more employees have stopped working together.

“Living is very expensive – what they offer, I won’t be able to live in a month,” said Mike Ortiz, a truck driver from Malden, Massachusetts.

At its peak, more than 2,000 garbage collectors that are valid across the country have not affected millions of Americans at work. Although the Republic and the Union resolved some local disputes, many workers insisted.

In Gloucester, an ocean city about an hour north of Boston, the bright smell of salt air is irritated by the lingering trash and squeezed overhead.

“I mean, if it’s November, December, it’s not striking, its scent isn’t that striking,” the city’s mayor Greg Vargas told the BBC.

This has become a major nuisance for the mayor, who teamed up with five other towns to sue the Republic for breach of contract.

“When they talked to us before the strike, they said, don’t worry, we are a state company. We will have someone to prepare and take care of everything,” he recalled. “This has not been achieved since day one.”

Meanwhile, the Services Agency of the Republic has sued the team, accusing it of engaging in illegal acts.

“The convoy’s patterns of criminal conduct – including truck theft, tire cuts, spraying chemicals on drivers and hate speech – proved the union’s preference for chaos rather than compromise,” the company said in a statement.

The union denies the charges.

Waste collectors in major cities such as New York and Philadelphia are public employees, but smaller metropolises have long outsourced them to private companies like Republic. Founded more than 40 years ago, the company earned $16 billion in 2024 and is often featured on the Fortune 500 list.

At the heart of its success story is a commitment to the customer: We will stir up the garbage you can’t see, you don’t have to think about it.

But things can get ugly when the garbage piles up.

“We have wastes associated with poverty and disease, especially wastes — other things we don’t like to see or think about,” said Moore Moore, a professor in the Department of Geography at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

She said this could make amazing workers use.

In Philadelphia, a separate trash strike made headlines this summer, and the city only took eight days to reach a deal with public workers as garbage poured into the streets and residents complained about rats running Amok.

In Lacey, Washington, outside the capital Olympia, the union representing the workers there reached an agreement with the Republic Services company about a week later, ending the strike. It also reached an agreement with Manteca, California, in Manteca, near Stockton.

But residents who spoke with the BBC near Lacey last week said they felt workers were absent during the strike. They describe dirty diapers piled up at home, and striking sanitation workers describe jobs working in dangerous and dirty conditions.

Picket workers complained that the Republic has not maintained equipment since taking over Thurston County dump two years ago.

“Things have been falling apart,” said Eric Fiel, a senior health worker.

“We have a pump system that keeps breaking. Basically it’s just stacking up.

Will Zekas of Lacey told the BBC that he appreciated the national efforts taking place around the United States and attributed it to his union’s ability to reach better contracts.

“Power lies in unity,” he said.

There appears to be no sign of fast resolution in parts of Massachusetts affected by the Team Racing Bureau Local 25 strike. Mr Ortiz said unions and companies were farther away than salaries and health care benefits.

Everyone accused the other of distorting the conflict.

“Republic Services focuses on facts and has reached an agreement that provides market-leading salaries and benefits to our employees, while team leadership focuses on disinformation and disruption,” the company said in a statement.

Meanwhile, towns and cities have to use their creativity and dig their own pockets to control the garbage.

Several towns have created garbage dumps, and residents can bring their own garbage. Gloucester has moved some municipal workers to pick-up positions, while others have had to outsource them to different private contractors. Additional costs were mentioned in the lawsuit against the Republic.

But even cities that don’t work with the Republic are struggling to deal with the deadlock.

In Boston, many local businesses rely on the company for private collections, and Mayor Michelle Wu said she was unable to collect garbage from customers due to ongoing labor disputes in the Republic Service, so she would begin fines to the Republic: “You cannot collect garbage from customers, causing unacceptable losses to Boston’s residents, businesses and businesses and communities and communities and communities and communities and communities.”

In a coffee shop in Malden, a few miles north of Boston, a garbage dumpster spilled Wednesday, attracting a buzzing insect.

“Really, it’s really horrible. I don’t know how to explain how frustrating it is,” said business owner Glaicy Santos. “We need to pick up the trash every week because we have a lot of trash. When that doesn’t happen, that’s a big problem for us. Then it turns into a mosquito, or else other rodents might be there too.”

She wasn’t sure how much she could take, but she might have had some time to wait. Negotiations broke down last Friday and both parties did not return to the bargaining table regularly.