The Trucks Will Roll Again
The strike by garbage workers in Orange County provided a unique window on a host of familiar problems for the people who keep the wheels of daily life turning in one of the nation’s most expensive places to live.
The disputed numbers were instructive. Management offered a raise from $12.90 to $16 an hour over five years, with a $1-per-hour raise in the first year. With their usual 15 hours of overtime weekly, workers’ average pay would increase from about $42,000 to $53,700 a year. In all, it amounted to a 33.5% raise over five years, plus more in benefits.
In many parts of the country, to be making more than $50,000 a year hardly would put a worker in the category of those seriously in need. And union leadership had advised against the strike by more than 700 drivers, mechanics and maintenance workers from Teamsters Local 396. Management didn’t help last week by suggesting that it would expect the union to pick up strike costs. Cool heads finally prevailed on all sides, and workers gauged the prospect of being out of work in a tough economy. The efforts of a federal mediator to bring the parties together were welcome.
Whatever the merits of the demand by some union members for a raise of $6 an hour in the first year, the overall message coming from complaining workers echoed a larger theme that has been repeated over and over in Orange County. The cost of living for many ordinary working folks is way beyond reach, with escalating home prices and a jobs and housing imbalance that requires many to make arduous commutes. While many of the union members are making a good wage, they also have to put in lots of overtime. That surely adds to the strain of getting to and from the job and meeting the needs of their families in an expensive area.
For years, a shortage of low-and medium-income housing has been a critical component in regional transportation and land-use discussions. Many other workers make painful sacrifices to get the job done. Those issues still need to be addressed more satisfactorily.
It was important to resolve this dispute before it spread. Halted or delayed service for 400,000 residential households and 35,000 commercial and industrial customers in about 20 Orange County cities and unincorporated areas represented a significant disruption. It came at a time when the country already was trying to recover from the terrible events of Sept. 11.
Some of the community spirit seen during the strike was encouraging. One man who rented a truck to move furniture helped his neighbors by hauling trash bins to a transfer station.
Both sides finally recognized the need to get this dispute resolved quickly, and got the job done.
