Waste Management Dumps Last, Best and Final on Puget Sound Sanitation Workers
New Proposal Said to Contain at Least 13 Contract Modifications
SEATTLE, April 2 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Teamsters Local 174 received what Waste Management (WMI) called a last, best, and final offer last night for contracts covering 450 sanitation workers who service 1 million customers in King and Snohomish counties. The union said the proposal contained significant changes that had not yet been discussed in bargaining and new language that they were seeing for the very first time.
(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20100127/IBTLOGO )
"The idea that the company can introduce new language and throw all kinds of changes at us and expect our members to vote on a short deadline is offensive," said Rick Hicks, Secretary-Treasurer of Teamsters Local 174 and lead negotiator for the union. "The union has a responsibility to our membership to analyze the whole contract proposal and not just vote our members on a one page press release from the company."
"From a union's perspective, this appears to be a tactic to divide the membership and force them to vote on a substandard deal," said Local 117 Secretary-Treasurer, Tracey A. Thompson. "This approach to bargaining calls into question whether the company is bargaining in good faith."
Representatives of WMI distributed a one-page appended summary of the offer to sanitation workers as they reported to their facilities for work this morning. Workers reactions to the offer ranged from indifference to anger. "By attaching an artificial deadline, it looks like they're trying to ram a bad contract down the sanitation workers' throats," said Brent Barrett a yard waste driver at WMI Seattle.
Teamsters Local 174 spokesperson Michael Gonzales said the union has carefully considered the company's last, best and final offer and has given a new proposal to the company which contains significant movement.
"We have requested that the employer return to the bargaining table and at the time of this press release we have not received a response," Gonzales said.
SOURCE Teamsters Local Unions 117 & 174
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