Midway City : Sanitation Workers Strike Over Wages

About 85,000 residents of western Orange County were left without trash collection Tuesday when employees of the Midway City Sanitary District walked off the job.

The union representing the 46 workers, including sewer cleaners, trash collectors, drivers and mechanics, said that the strike was called because the district’s board of directors has refused to negotiate a wage increase.

Steve Pryor, president of the Midway City Sanitary District Employees Assn., said that the group had made a proposal for an 8% salary hike last June, but “that’s negotiable.

“The reason for the walkout is because the board would just not come to the table with any kind of a counterproposal,” he said. “They just don’t want to talk money.”

Pryor said that the strike will continue “as long as it takes just to get them to come to the table with some sort of counteroffer. We could have kept things moving if we’d have had a counterproposal”

Board President Dick Olson said the district’s financial situation is such that it has had to get a $250,000 line of credit from a banking institution so it can borrow, if necessary, to meet operating expenses.

“The question is, do the taxpayers want us to borrow to meet a salary increase of 8%?” Olson asked. “I don’t think the board feels comfortable with that. The basic consensus is that there is not enough funding to grant it.”

The district serves the unincorporated community of Midway City as well as parts of Westminster and Garden Grove.