by Tom Price
Workers at Republic Services bury the waste our supposedly affluent society produces at the Vasco Rd. landfill in Livermore. But for many years their pay was considerably less than affluent, and they just finished an 18-month campaign to change that. They signed their first contract Nov. 1 as warehouse Local 6 members and have won some big gains.
The struggle began in June 2004 when the workers asked the employer to recognize Local 6 as their bargaining representative. They presented a petition to the company asking for recognition and 15 of the 16 workers signed it. But management refused to respond.
The workers knew they were paid significantly less than union people doing the same work just a few miles away. In fact, Local 6 heavy equipment operators at Altamont Landfill made $24.30 an hour at the time, while Vasco Rd. workers were often pulling down $18 for the same work, with far fewer benefits.
On the morning of July 16, 2004 workers greeted the arriving garbage trucks with a picket line. Management responded with a two-hour lockout. Meanwhile, many of the trucks had turned around and parked with their loads reeking in the hot sun. Local 6 Secretary-Treasurer Fred Pecker went inside for a chat. As more garbage trucks lined up, management saw that opening communications with Local 6 was a good idea.
The workers elected Antonio Flores and Mark Pursell to the bargaining team. They joined Local 6 President Efren Alarcon and Secretary-Treasurer Fred Pecker. The team began talks Aug. 24, 2004.
"Negotiations were long and drawn out, but everybody was together and it wasn’t always a fight," Pursell said. "The give and take went well, and there were only a couple times things got heated."
They continued talking for almost a year and a half and a big stumbling block was pensions.
"The company was offering a 401(k) and we were proposing a defined pension plan, the Local 6 Industrial Employers and Distributors Assn.," Alarcon said. "Finally, they agreed."
Wage issues were complicated by the widely different pay rates within the facility and the difference between Republic wages and union shops in the area.
Now the pay will be comparable to other waste management companies. Equipment operators will get $22.54, laborers will get $15 an hour, skilled laborers will be paid $18.50, mechanics start at $25, operators start at $22.50 and will end up at $26.38. Wage increases over the last five years of the contract will step up each year 2.5, 3, 3, 3.5, and 3.5 percent, beginning Nov. 1, 2006.
"On Nov. 1, 2005 we came to an agreement to move up the classifications and pay everyone in the class the same amount, so some people got between $4 and $6 raises right away," Alarcon said. "We got a defined benefit pension plan, and the medical costs will be paid by the employer effective June 1, 2007."
Members had been paying on average $200 a month for medicals before the contract. A few paid less, but one person was paying almost $300 a month for his family. Now the whole family gets coverage. From Nov. 1, 2005 to June 1, 2006 workers will pay $1.43 an hour for medical. After June 1 they’ll only pay 50 cents an hour and that drops to zero on June 1, 2007. The company’s medical payments will be capped at $909 a month after June 1 2006. If it exceeds that, the members will have to pay a percentage of the difference out of pocket.
The pension plan now provides much more than the former 401(k) plan. The employer will now contribute $2.43an hour to the Local 6 plan, with a $.22 increase in June, 2006, and further increases will be negotiated. The workers will contribute $1.43 an hour until May, 2006, and then $.50 until June, 2007. After that the employer will pick up the whole cost.
"My overall take is that the company was fair, and part of that is that they knew that our rank and file was a strong and united unit who were ready to do what they had to do to get a decent contract," Alarcon said. "We had a very good committee, they were solid, non-selfish individuals."
