IWW Recyclers in Berkeley rally for Strong Contracts
Submitted on Wed, 11/14/2007 - 4:42pm
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.
Many recycling workers in the Bay Area make as little as $7 per hour. The starting wage at “the Buyback” is $11.05. Five more dollars an hour is what it takes to survive in the Bay Area. Recycling workers were joined at the rally by approximately ten supporters from the local IWW branch. After 6 or 7 people spoke everybody headed to the office of the general manager of the “curbside” operation. Everyone was upbeat as they entered the trailer housing the office. This same scenario had been enacted two months earlier when the recyclers at the sorting yard stopped work in solidarity with the truck drivers and loaders. That day, September 10tth, the drivers and loaders refused to work in protest of changes in routing. The drivers and loaders, with the help of the sorters, won back the right to decide the routes. An account of the events of that action can be found on this website.
After presenting contract demands to the boss at “curbside”, workers headed back to the yard. The message to management; these workers are ready and willing to take action to win their demands.