Local 120 Wins Historic Agreement to Help Organize Waste Workers

Local 120 in Minneapolis has won a card-check/neutrality agreement—that far exceeds typical card-check agreements—with a 13-company consortium of waste-hauling companies which will make it easier for waste workers to become Teamsters.

The “labor-peace” agreement took effect December 1, 2008 between Local 120 and the consortium, known as Minneapolis Refuse, Inc. (MRI). Leaders of Local 120 and other labor leaders in the Minneapolis area laid the groundwork for the agreement two years ago by fighting for passage of a labor peace ordinance in Minneapolis.

“We worked with labor leaders throughout the city for the past two years to make the agreement with MRI possible,” said Brad Slawson, Jr., Local 120 President. “Now, we are working on plans to organize the 13 MRI companies, and we are getting the support of the International Union’s Organizing Department. Soon, waste workers in the Twin Cities area will have a strong voice on the job as Teamsters.”

Each of the MRI members has signed labor peace agreements with Local 120. The agreement is exceptional for many reasons. The employers will allow Local 120 organizers access to its facilities, where three meetings of up to 30 minutes will be held while employees are on the clock. At the meetings, the facility manager will distribute a memo outlining that the employer will remain neutral, and the facility manager will introduce the union organizers.

The agreement also provides the organizers with access to the facility parking lots after the shifts are over. Also, the employers will provide the union with a current list of names, addresses and phone numbers of all unit employees and will update the list and keep it current during the organizing campaigns. The list will include temporary employees and will designate which employees are temporary and which are not.

The agreement also contains extensive enforcement language to make sure the employers abide by the agreement.

The employers agree to recognize Local 120 as the employees’ bargaining agent if a majority of employees sign union authorization cards.

“This agreement far exceeds the typical card check-neutrality agreement—it is a milestone in our organizing efforts,” Slawson said. “I want to recognize the incredible support from the International Union’s Solid Waste Division and the Strategic Campaigns and Research Department.”

Local 120 leaders were busy the past several years to make the agreement possible. For example, Local 120 founded its own political action committee, 120PAC, to build relationships with the mayor and City Council members. 120PAC made organizing sanitation workers a political priority.Also, Local 120 leaders lobbied the mayor and City Council members accompanied by Bill McCarthy, President of the Minneapolis Regional Labor Federation AFL-CIO, and two sanitation workers who were involved in previous campaigns at Waste Management and Allied.  The workers shared the concerns that drove them to seek union representation and their experiences with union busters while attempting to organize.

Slawson is the chairman of Change to Win Minnesota. In that position, he used the Change to Win’s politics and organizing model to win the agreement.

Meanwhile, it turned out that several companies wouldn’t agree to the city’s labor peace requirement, and it cost them dearly. Aspen Waste lost a chance to take over 40 percent of the routes out for bid because the company wouldn’t agree to the labor peace requirement.

Also, Waste Management and Allied withdrew from MRI rather than comply with the labor peace requirement.

“We effectively drove Allied and Waste Management out of the market, two of the worst union-busting waste-hauling companies,” Slawson said.