Teamster Sanitation Workers Offer to Return to Bargaining Table
Negotiations Expected to Resume Tuesday Afternoon
SEATTLE, Wash., April 15 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Teamsters Local 174 has offered to continue negotiating with Waste Management next week in an effort to avoid a labor dispute. Bargaining is expected to resume Tuesday afternoon.
"We are still holding out hope that this situation can be remedied," said Rick Hicks, Secretary Treasurer of Teamsters Local 174. "As long as Waste Management is willing to come back to the table and negotiate in good faith we will be there."
Although sanitation work is one of the most dangerous jobs in the country, Waste Management has been unwilling to provide the same employee health care protections provided by all other major waste companies in the greater Seattle area.
"We believe Waste Management's attempt to lockout area sanitation workers or force a strike is part of a broader strategy to interfere with King County's transfer and landfill service agreement with area municipalities in an effort to privatize the existing public transfer and landfill system," said Michael Gonzales, spokesperson for Teamsters Local 174. "It just doesn't make sense that the largest, most profitable waste company in the country can't provide the same health care protections that its smaller competitors provide."
SOURCE Teamsters Local Unions 174
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