Garbage drivers ratify new Waste Management contract
Published 6:56 pm Tuesday, May 4, 2010
More than 200 Waste Management garbage haulers voted May 2 to ratify a new five-year contract between Teamsters Local 174 and Waste Management.
Union members met for nearly four hours before they approved the contract with a 96 percent vote, according to the Local 174 Web site.
Negotiators from the union and Waste Management met for two days last week before they reached a tentative agreement. Garbage drivers struck for two days April 21-22 before company officials agreed to return to the bargaining table.
Waste Management serves about 1,300 commercial customers and 135 multi-family (condos, apartments) customers in Kent. The company serves nearly one million customers in King and Snohomish counties.
Details of the contract were not released.
The drivers had been working without a contract since April 1.
Single-family homes in Kent are served by Allied Waste, whose drivers agreed to a new four-year contract in early April. Allied Waste serves the city’s nearly 16,200 single-family homes.
