Trash haulers reject new contract

Jace Radke

Monday, May 22, 2000 | 11:52 a.m.

Nearly 500 union trash haulers for Republic Services of Southern Nevada sent negotiators back to the bargaining table after rejecting a new contract offer Sunday from the garbage giant.

The vote sends negotiators from the Teamsters Local 631 back to the company, which holds franchises for trash removal with Clark County, Las Vegas, Henderson and North Las Vegas. The goal is to reach a deal before the current contract expires June 11 and avoid a summer trash strike.

"There's always the possibility of a strike, any time a contract is rejected," James E. Wilkerson Sr., Teamsters international trustee, said. "We're hoping we will be able to get back to the bargaining table and get something done. But we're not sure yet."

The union represents more than 1,000 Republic Services, formerly Silver State Disposal, employees, mostly trash haulers and shop workers.

The 27-page, five-year contract was turned down by 429 members of the Teamsters Local 631, members said after the meeting Sunday night. Another 65 members voted for the offer, and six abstained. Wilkerson would not confirm the vote numbers, but said it was an overwhelming majority.

The next step, Wilkerson said, is to "contact the employers and see if they are willing to go back to the table."

After the vote, workers talked in the parking lot of the Local 631 union hall, 700 N. Lamb Blvd., questioning everything from safety to compensation.

"It ran pretty much against taking the contract," said one worker. "It's the same old thing from them, except that this is a five-year deal instead of the usual three."

The company was disappointed in the vote, but optimistic that an agreement can be reached before June 11, according to a prepared statement by Republic Services spokeswoman Lee Haney.

The contract included an increase of about 20 percent in salary and employee benefits over the life of the contract and the addition of new job classifications providing for more union jobs, Haney said.

The workers, many of whom asked not to be identified to protect their jobs, said that one of the biggest sticking points in the contract is over subcontracting out jobs to nonunion workers.

Last year about 70 truck drivers lost their jobs at Republic Services when the company decided to subcontract the transportation of garbage from area transfer stations to the Apex landfill 15 miles north of Las Vegas.

The union voted to strike for those 70 jobs despite a no-strike clause in the current contract. A strike was averted when the union and company agreed that the transfer jobs could be outsourced as long as no other jobs went to subcontractors.

The new contract offer allows the washing and steam cleaning of trucks as well as the repair of engines, drive lines and other mechanical work to be outsourced when there is too much work for the union employees to complete or the tools and equipment to fix the problem are not on site. That clause also was in previous contracts, Wilkerson said.

"That's what worries me, because it sounds like we could lose jobs in our shops," another worker said.

Others complained of too large a workload without enough attention paid to safety in the contract, mentioning forced overtime and not enough sick days.

The vote against the contract came despite a union negotiating committee recommendation to members a week ago to accept the proposed agreement, Haney and Wilkerson said.

Wilkerson and Local 631 Vice President Derek Cardwell said that the union would issue a statement today on the vote Sunday night. Cardwell did talk to many of the union members in the parking lot after the meeting asking that they get the word out to any workers who didn't make it to the vote.

Jean Reid Norman contributed to this report.