Trash Haulers on Strike

WNYC News | Jul 12, 2010

New York, NY —

Trash haulers for Waste Management Incorporated have gone on strike. The private garbage company is the largest in the country and is responsible for removing commercial waste throughout the city.

REPORTER: 123 Teamster Union drivers are picketing the Houston-based company's local office in the Greenpoint section of Brooklyn. At a press conference today, Mayor Bloomberg promised that the city would not sit by and allow garbage to pile up on the streets.

BLOOMBERG: If Waste Management doesn't collect the trash with the people they have working for them, or with anyone else they hire, then the city will step in. We will declare a health emergency and we will pick up the trash.

REPORTER: Bloomberg also said that the city would *not* play an active role in negotiations between Waste Management and the Union. It's the city's first trash strike since 1990. The company is one of dozens that collect trash for offices, manufacturers, hotels, and restaurants. Residential garbage is collected by the city's Sanitation Department.

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