By M.K. and other members of the Bay Area Utility Service Workers iu670 industrial organizing committee.

The contract negotiations between the Bay Area IU 670 Recycling Workers Union and the two Berkeley Recycling Companies has been a challenging struggle, but workers have stepped up to fight for tremendous improvements. The Bay Area IWW represents drivers at The Ecology Center who do residential curbside pickup, and workers at The Community Conversation Center yard who sort and process recycling materials. Both workers have been waging shopfloor struggles to resolve grievances and improve their working conditions. With both contracts coming up for negotiations, workers stepped up the fight.

The drivers met several times both at work and outside of work to draft an ambitious list of roughly 15 demands including an across the board wage hike, increase in pension payments by the company, and a change to the current accident penalties. The existing agreement resulted in termination of any driver who was involved in three accidents incurring more than $1400 worth of damage. With the narrow winding streets of Berkeley and the increasing costs of small accidents like broken rear-view mirrors, we have seen several workers purposefully dropping down to a loader after two incidents. This has resulted in wage decreases of up to $10 per hour!

Recyclers held a stop work rally to press contract demands on Thursday, November 8th, at recycling facilities in Berkeley.  Thirty-five or so workers from two Berkeley recycling operations are in the midst of renegotiating contracts. At “curbside”, recycling trucks go out every week day morning to pick up residential recycling.  Across the way at “the Buyback,” residential recycling from the trucks plus drop-off recycling is sorted by twenty workers.  All workers are members of the IWW.  Both union contracts expire on December 31st, 2007.   During the rally workers from both shops stepped up and spoke about the need for unity, participation and solidarity in order to win their demands.  Demands are not the same at both shops.  However, workers at both shops are calling for a five dollar an hour wage increase across the board.  This is a serious demand.

Disclaimer - the following editorial is not by a member of the IWW, nor do they necessarily agree with or endorse our organization. The editorial is posted here because it closely matches the perspective of many IWW members and the Preamble to the IWW Constitution. It also affects IWW members in Industrial Union 670 directly.

By Richard Mellor - AFSCME Local 444 Retired, Oakland CA, August 2, 2007.

San Leandro CA - After absorbing the severe financial stress of being locked out for a month, members of Teamsters Local 870 suffered further setbacks in the contract deal brought to them by Teamster officials. The employers, Waste Management Co, imported scabs from other parts of the U.S. during the lockout and brought in their other allies, a mediator and Oakland mayor, Ron Dellums. The liberal community and the heads of the labor movement in this area have revered Dellums, a former congressman and mentor of another popular liberal Democrat, Barbara Lee.

When asked by the press if the lockout “was a test of his leadership” Dellums replied, "I don't take it to have anything to do with me. It has to do with a company in a dispute with a labor union. It would be a gigantic mistake for me to personalize this. That's a journey I choose not to go on." (1)

With friends like these, it should come as no surprise that Waste Management got what they wanted. According to press reports, management got a five-year contract while workers got a 5% raise which with inflation will most likely be a wage reduction

Four years ago the Bay Area IWW was contacted byworkers at the East Bay Depot for Creative Reuse in Oakland. They had numerous grievances and decided union membership would be a way to bring their concerns to management.  Eventually the workers voted unanimously for the IWW.

During and after the union organizing campaign management took a very mean spirited approach to the union workers.  Including harassment, intimidation, firing and forcing workers to quit.  On top of the union busting strategy the company lost grant money to run an art outreach program to local schools.  This development caused four workers to be laid off.  Eventually, the union walked away from the bargaining table as nearly all the workers were laid off, fired or quit.  Unfair Labor Practice charges were filed but had little effect.