News Updates

By a 12-0 vote, 13 workers at Republic Services in Los Banos and in Atwater, in California, voted to join Local 386 in Modesto. The votes in the mail-in election were counted on January 3, 2012.

“The workers at the two locations are seeking fair treatment and respect,” said John Costa, Local 386 Vice President. “They also often work without breaks or lunches, and they are seeking affordable health care. Some of the workers pay more than $300 a month for health care.”

Republic sent someone from Phoenix to talk to the workers to persuade them to vote against forming a union, but the tactic failed miserably.

“The guys stayed firm. They just stared this person down and talked him down,” Costa said.

“We know contract negotiations will be difficult but we will work hard to address the workers’ issues,” Costa said.

“We have had several organizing victories at Republic in recent weeks and we hope to build on this momentum so that these workers gain a more secure future,” said Bob Morales, Director of the Teamsters Solid Waste, Recycling and Related Industries Division. “Republic workers do a great job day in and day out and they deserve rights and protections that come with being Teamsters.”

(ATLANTA) – Republic Waste drivers in McDonough, Ga., voted 24-14 to join Teamsters Local 728 on Friday after a hard-fought campaign.

'This is a great victory for our union,” said Local 728 President Randy Brown. “It adds another unit to an existing group of Republic workers in the Atlanta area. It goes to show, yet again, that we can organize waste workers in the South.”

The organizing victory marked the seventh National Labor Relations Board election won by Teamsters Local 728 this year, including two at Republic.

The drivers were frustrated by wage cuts, intimidation, heavy workloads and management’s indifference to their problems.

“They piled more work on us. If you didn’t have 358 stops in one day, they took the helper off,” said Renard Henley, a Republic driver. “You’ve got a lot of people, after three years their body has broken down.”

“We deal with a lot of intimidation on the job. If you complain about anything, the first thing they tell you is ‘There’s the door if you don’t like that.’ We didn’t need to hear that. We’ve got a family just like they do,” Henley said. 

Founded in 1903, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters represents 1.4 million hardworking men and women throughout the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico. For more information, please visit www.Teamster.org or follow us on Twitter @TeamsterPower.

Teamsters Solid Waste, Recycling and Related Industries Division Director Bob Morales and Local 350 steward Michelle Ramirez took part in a panel discussion this week at the U.S. Capitol to discuss a recycling report calling for higher recycling rates to create jobs and reduce pollution.

U.S. Sen. Tom Carper (D-DE) also appeared at the National Recycling Day event on Tuesday, November 15, along with representatives from environmental groups. Carper, Morales, Ramirez and the others were discussing the release of More Jobs, Less Pollution, a new report which found that a 75 percent national recycling rate would create 1.5 million new jobs by 2030, and would reduce pollution and improve public health.

“The findings of this report show that increasing diversion rates of municipal and construction recyclables to 75 percent by 2030 would create 1.5 million jobs,” said Morales, who is also Secretary-Treasurer of Local 350 in San Francisco. “With the right policies and goals in place, we can make these findings a reality and ensure that the jobs created are good, career-track, union jobs here in the United States. Teamster employers like Recology in San Francisco have demonstrated that recycling and composting mandates can create quality jobs for San Francisco workers, like Local 350 Steward Michelle Ramirez.”

Ramirez said Teamster recycling jobs in San Francisco have improved lives.

“My good-paying job not only helps the environment, but provides great wages and benefits for me and my co-workers,” said Ramirez, a six-year Recology employee who is a material handler at the company. “This is a very exciting event. I am going to share this experience with my co-workers so they know their jobs are important.”

More Jobs, Less Pollution was prepared for the BlueGreen Alliance, Teamsters, Natural Resources Defense Council, Service Employees International Union, Recycling Works! and the Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives (GAIA) by the Tellus Institute.

(Washington, D.C.) – Higher recycling rates hold the potential to produce millions of new jobs, would strengthen local economies, reduce pollution and improve public health, according to a new report released today.

At a National Recycling Day event at the U.S. Capitol, Sen. Tom Carper (D-DE), a representative from the office of U.S. Rep. Frank Pallone (D-NJ) and a panel of environmental, labor and other leaders discussed the report, “More Jobs, Less Pollution,” which found that a 75 percent national recycling rate holds the potential to create millions of new jobs.

“More Jobs, Less Pollution” (available at www.teamster.org/morejobslesspollution), is a report from the Tellus Institute prepared for the BlueGreen Alliance, SEIU, NRDC, Teamsters, Recycling Works!, and the Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives (GAIA)

A 75 percent national recycling rate would also reduce CO2 emissions by 276 million metric tons by 2030—equivalent to eliminating the emissions from 72 coal-fired power plants or taking 50 million cars off the road; reduce conventional and toxic emissions that impact human and ecosystem health; and generate a stronger economy by creating a broader employment base.

“Increasing our recycling rather than dumping renewable resources in landfills and incinerators will create nearly 1.5 million jobs that are sorely needed, and will benefit the environment,” said Jim Hoffa, Teamsters General President. “The Teamsters are interested in creating good, green jobs.”

“This report shows that increasing our recycling rate will both conserve our natural resources and  create jobs, with a significant amount of those jobs coming in manufacturing,” said BlueGreen Alliance executive director David Foster. “At a time when our country needs strategies to create good jobs and confront climate change, recycling represents an opportunity to put people back to work while building a stronger, more efficient economy as well as a cleaner and healthier environment.”

“Recycling creates jobs—a national priority. And recycling does this while reducing pollution and conserving resources and energy. Recycling can do so much that expensive incinerators and unproductive landfills cannot do for our communities. As cities make decisions about how to manage waste,” said Monica Wilson, U.S. and Canada Program Director with GAIA, “they should invest in good, safe jobs in recycling, composting, and reuse.”

“Never in our lifetime has it been more important to merge environmental progress with jobs,” said Allen Hershkowitz, senior scientist at the Natural Resources Defense Council. “The country is underachieving when it comes to recycling and we hear about high unemployment rates every day. This report raises hope. It confirms that organized labor and environmentalists can join together and reminds us that recycling still holds great potential to heal the planet in an ecologically and economically productive way. We want to educate and encourage policy makers at all levels of government about what they can do to create a more robust recycling system for our planet and our economy.”