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\t\t\t\t\t\tBill Would Prevent Municipalities from Paying for Canceled Trash Pick Ups<\/p>\n
Press Contact: Matt McQuaid\u00a0Phone: (771) 241-0015\u00a0Email: mmcquaid@teamster.org<\/p>\n
(SACRAMENTO, Calif.) \u2013 Teamsters celebrate the passage of Senate Bill 1371 (SB 1371) out of the California State Senate Committee on Local Government and call for every lawmaker in the upper chamber to support the bill when it comes up for a floor vote. SB 1371, authored by Sen. Mar\u00eda Elena Durazo, would prevent municipalities from being forced to pay for waste and recycling services that aren\u2019t rendered because of a work stoppage.<\/p>\n
\u201cSB 1371 will lead to healthier communities, cost savings for local governments, increased corporate accountability, and a higher standard of living for the unsung heroes who power our state\u2019s recycling and waste management infrastructure,\u201d said Victor Mineros, Director of the Teamsters Solid Waste and Recycling Division and Co-Chair of Teamsters California. \u201cPassing this bill is a no brainer. Every lawmaker in Sacramento should get on board with it.\u201d<\/p>\n
During strikes, waste companies usually impose\u00a0force majeure\u00a0provisions in their contracts with municipalities. These\u00a0 allow the companies to collect money from taxpayers without providing trash or recycling pickups.. SB 1371 would ensure\u00a0force majeure\u00a0provisions can no longer be invoked because of labor disputes, which companies have the clear ability to stop or prevent. This will incentivize sanitation contractors to resolve the strikes they cause much faster.<\/p>\n
\u201cWorkers don\u2019t choose to strike \u2014 we are forced to by employers that fail to bargain fair contracts. When we are left with no choice but to withhold our labor, we lose wages but we still have families to feed,\u201d said Marcus Ford, a member of Teamsters Local 396 at Republic Services. \u201cWaste companies know exactly what they\u2019re doing \u2014 the longer they\u00a0drag out strikes, the more the trash piles up and the more our communities suffer. But employers are barely affected because the\u00a0force majeure\u00a0clause sitting in their back pockets is a get-out-of-jail-free card.\u201d<\/p>\n
Problems with municipal waste management plagued California last summer following a\u00a0nationwide strike<\/a>\u00a0caused by Republic Services, which forced a number of the affected cities and towns to sue the trash giant for breach of contract. In September, contracts covering\u00a0over 3,000 Solid Waste Teamsters<\/a>\u00a0who provide services to millions of people throughout Southern California, including Los Angeles County, are set expire.<\/p>\n