Garbage Haulers Go Back to Work

Striking Orange County trash haulers, unable to improve on the contract they rejected a week earlier, ended a five-day walkout Friday that had disrupted garbage pickup in about 25 cities as well as unincorporated areas.

The collapse of the county’s first major trash strike in 20 years occurred as the public was distracted by the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and a faltering national economy, which strikers said made it difficult to gain critical support.

The contract settlement means that garbage collection will resume as early as today for almost half the county’s households and about 35,000 businesses. Full residential service will begin Monday.

“Life is back to normal,” said Bob Coyle, a vice president at Waste Management Inc., which employs 220 of the striking workers. “We are glad to have a contract. We are glad to have our drivers back.”

Many drivers, however, expressed disappointment that they won nothing after five days on picket lines.

“We felt like our backs were up against a wall,” said driver Miguel Angelo, who like many of his fellow union members reluctantly voted Friday for the deal. “We got no help from the public. They could have stopped bringing their trash here. If the trash had started to pile up on the streets, it would have put pressure on the company.”

But the settlement was good news for residents and business owners who depend on smooth trash disposal operations.

“Fabulous!” shouted Delhi Winn after she learned the strike was over.

The job action had halted twice-weekly pickups at her 10-unit Caroline Apartments on Huntington Beach’s 2nd Street. By Friday, the trash Dumpster that “usually holds everything” was overflowing, bags of trash were left on the ground nearby “and ants were crawling all over,” she said.

Members of Teamsters Local 396 approved the five-year contract by wide margins at CR&R;, Rainbow Disposal, Taormina Industries and Waste Management Inc. They accepted the same offer they rejected Sept. 28 despite the advice of their leadership to take it.

The agreement raises wages from $12.90 per hour to $13.90 per hour immediately, then increases by smaller increments to $16 in five years. Workers also will receive more benefits and four additional vacation days.

Under the old contract, the base pay was $26,832 a year, with overtime in some cases lifting the annual wage to about $42,000. The new agreement raises the base pay to $28,912 a year, plus overtime.

Progress toward a settlement occurred after federal mediator Juan Carlos Gonzalez held meetings earlier this week between company and union negotiators. He said he was trying to find some common ground so they could return to the bargaining table.

Even before the contract was ratified Friday, many drivers and maintenance people reported to work. At Taormina in Anaheim, a few union members walked onto the property in the morning, cast their ballots, and headed to their assignments.

The strike began Monday when 700 to 800 drivers, mechanics and maintenance workers represented by Local 396 walked off their jobs. Some members said at the time that they deserved an initial raise of $6 an hour in the first year, plus subsequent increases to give them parity with refuse workers in other metropolitan areas.

Company representatives refused to budge from their last offer and began replacing strikers with supervisors and employees from other departments. Later in the week, the firms started hiring and advertising for permanent replacements.

In the end, uncertainty and the fear of losing their jobs overpowered anger. The strikers capitulated, accepting a wage that is $6 an hour below rates paid in some other California cities, and $1.20 an hour below the county average, according to union officials and the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Ron Shenkman, the president of Rainbow Disposal, said he understands why some workers were unhappy with the final contract, but the companies need to move forward.

“We have a tremendous work force of people here and I’m not going to pass judgment on those people who might not have liked the contract,” Shenkman said. “We’re happy they’re coming back. . . . We’re very pleased that this only lasted five days.”

Some company officials said that once the strikers better understood the last contract offer, they overwhelmingly accepted it by a 3-1 margin. But many workers differed with that interpretation, mentioning the lack of medical benefits during the strike, low public support and the possibility of being replaced.

“We had everybody against us,” said Ernesto Pelayo, a 42-year-old Taormina driver who works 20 to 25 hours of overtime a week. “But I feel good. We did the best we can. We tried.”

Particularly vexing, workers said, were perceptions that they made more than $42,000 per year. While some do by working 55-hour weeks, they said most haulers earned less than $30,000 a year--a low wage on which to support a family.

And the timing for the walkout might have been better. Union leaders considered seeking an extension of the contract, which expired Sept. 30, to let some time pass after the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. But they decided against it because the last time they got an extension on a contract vote, they lost weeks of raises when the new contract was not made retroactive.

“If it was up to us, we would have done it three months from now because of New York City,” said Armando Duarte, a shop steward at Rainbow Disposal. “But it was just our luck the contract expired.”

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Times staff writers Stanley Allison, Mike Anton and Scott Martelle contributed to this report.