Republic Services sues Teamsters over alleged actions on picket line as strike passes two week mark

Trash company Republic Services is suing Teamsters Local 25 amid the union's ongoing strike in a number of Massachusetts towns and cities, alleging that union officials shouted slurs at replacement workers, slashed vehicle tires and may have stolen a truck.

The company and the union have been at a standoff since July 1 when 450 local workers went on strike calling for better wages, benefits and stronger labor protections. The strike expanded last week, and now the Teamsters say more than 2,000 employees are striking or honoring picket lines nationwide.

Republic Services is headquartered in Phoenix and provides waste management services across the country. It has about 42,000 employees. According to its Forbes profile, it made $2 billion in profits last year.

In the lawsuit filed in Boston federal court on Monday, Republic Services is asking a federal judge for a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction to stop the union from what the company says are illegal acts.

According to the suit, on the first day of the strike, picketers at a Revere facility swarmed a rental car and vans with management and 40 replacement workers, trapping them for three hours. Republic Services alleges that a union official slashed tires on two vans, while others rocked the vehicles and screamed profanities and homophobic slurs. (The suit claims that Revere police on scene took no action in response to the incident. A Revere police spokesperson didn't return a request for comment.)

The suit alleges that on another occasion, the same union official spit in the face of a security guard hired by Republic Services. WBUR left messages with the union official seeking comment but did not hear back.

The company claimed in the suit that Local 25 President Thomas Mari yelled at
Republic General Manager Kenny Runge, words to the effect of “You think this is bad? Wait until we ramp it up."

Reached by phone Monday and Tuesday, a Teamsters spokesperson did not provide comment. Mari did not return messages seeking comment.

Teamsters General President Sean M. O’Brien in a statement last week: “Republic Services has been threatening a war with American workers for years — and now, they’ve got one.”

“Republic abuses and underpays workers across the country," he said. "They burn massive profits and funnel money to undeserving, corrupt executives."

Republic Services says the picketers have blocked trucks from entering and exiting the garbage company's facilities for hours, and in some cases disabled the vehicles. And the suit alleges that cars driven by union members have dangerously surrounded its trucks on the highway.

Around 4:30 a.m. on July 10, a roll-off truck — a large vehicle designed to transport dumpsters — was stolen and driven to a nearby parking lot, the company says in the lawsuit. While the suit doesn't say a union affiliate took it, it claims "only an experienced driver would likely be able to steal a vehicle in this manner."

The company is contracted by over a dozen communities around Boston and the North Shore, providing service to 400,000 residential and commercial customers in Massachusetts. The suit says since the strike began, Republic Services has only averaged about 20% of its normal business volume in the state.

The union and Republic Services met with a federal mediator twice this month, the suit says, with no agreement reached. The two sides are set to meet again on Tuesday.

A federal judge has scheduled a hearing in the lawsuit for Monday.

Mari, the Local 25 president, posted on Teamsters Boston Facebook page on Monday  a list of issues that the two parties are still disagreeing on. He said that Republic Services wants inward and outward facing cameras on trucks, a five-year contract instead of three and has not met their requests for higher compensation.

According to the post, the current compensation offer from Republic Services would pay their workers $5.81 less per hour next year than what Capitol Waste pays its unionized employees. By 2027, they would be $7.93 per hour behind.

A number of elected officials in Massachusetts have called on Republic Services to adopt a fair contract for its workers.

State auditor Diana DiZoglio sent a letter to the company's president, Jon Vander Ark, expressing support for the workers' demands, calling them "reasonable and essential."

"I am disturbed that a Fortune 500 company with substantial annual profits, including a CEO compensation package of over $12 million, would resist reaching an agreement to provide frontline workers with the fair treatment they deserve," she wrote in the letter dated July 14.

The Boston City Council last week adopted a resolution in support of the workers, calling on Republic Services to adopt a fair contract.