(Washington, D.C.) – About 100 Teamster sanitation workers in both New York City and Washington, D.C., declared a strike today against Waste Management, Inc., the country’s largest private waste hauler.

The walkout follows months of grueling negotiations in which sanitation truck drivers and helpers at Local 813 in New York and Local 639 in Washington, D.C., fought off company attempts to slash take-home pay, wipe out employer-paid retirement benefits and drastically raise the price of health care while cutting coverage.

“Waste Management’s proposals to gut our pay, benefits, and health care come at a time when this company is racking up record profits,” said Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa. “These workers perform dangerous jobs that keep our neighborhoods free from filth and disease.”

Sanitation workers are three times more likely to be killed on the job than police officers or firefighters. “While sanitation workers are risking their own health and safety to keep our communities garbage-free, Waste Management is repaying them by slashing their health care. That’s corporate greed at its ugly worst,” Hoffa said. “Teamsters from coast to coast will be ramping up to support this strike.”

Waste Management posted $3.37 billion in revenues for the fourth quarter of 2005, up 5.1 percent from fourth-quarter earnings in 2004. The company raked in $12.2 billion in revenues in 2004.

“Waste Management has made a fortune, literally on the backs of these workers. The way this company has acted at the bargaining table, its motto should be ‘Think Mean’ instead of ‘Think Green,’” said Sylvester Needham, president of Teamsters Local 813. “All we are asking for is a fair contract that will let our members support their families, take their kids to the doctor and retire without the specter of poverty peering over their shoulders.”

The Teamsters Union represents 31,000 private sector sanitation workers, including 8,500 at Waste Management. The strike comes after a wave of Teamster protests against the company, including informational picketing and leafleting in California, Washington, Colorado, and Maryland, as well as a protest banner that was flown over the Daytona 500 (where WMI is a key NASCAR sponsor) and a January rally that drew hundreds in New York City.

The International Brotherhood of Teamsters, founded in 1903, represents 1.4 million hardworking women and men in the United States and Canada.