Mar 11, 2008

Oakland utility to cough up $7.89 million fine

Bay City News

Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums and Waste Management of Alameda County announced a tentative settlement Monday that calls for the garbage agency to pay the city a total of $7.89 million for disrupted service due to a lockout last summer.

Speaking at a news conference at City Hall, Dellums said the package includes $4.86 million worth of services for Oakland residents who were inconvenienced by the interruption.

The total also includes $3.03 million in rebates, which were paid to Oakland customers last fall.

The Oakland City Council will vote on the settlement at its meeting on March 18.

Dellums said the settlement was the result of "negotiating in good faith" to avoid costly litigation and will result in better services for Oakland residents, including better recycling services and a crackdown on illegal dumping.

Waste Management spokesman David Tucker called the settlement "a win-win for all the parties involved."

Last July 2, after three months of contract talks were unsuccessful, Waste Management locked out about 500 collection and long-haul drivers represented by International Brotherhood of Teamsters Local 70, stopping much of the solid waste collection, recycling, and disposal services for both residential and commercial customers in Oakland and other East Bay cities.

The city won a legal victory against the giant company on July 17 when a judge issued an injunction ordering it to fulfill its contract with the city and provide complete collection services for garbage, refuse and recycling materials.

Waste Management said it locked out its garbage truck drivers because it feared the union would go on strike, but the union said it didn't have any plans to go on strike.

The company then brought in replacement workers to collect garbage in the communities it serves in the East Bay.

On July 28, Teamsters workers voted 633-3 to approve a new five-year contract that Waste Management and the union had agreed upon after a series of marathon mediation sessions with federal mediator Jerry Allen and Dellums.

The union drivers then returned to work on July 30.

Tucker described the lockout period as "a trying time for everyone."

But he said the settlement is aimed at "keeping Oakland clean and green."

Brooke Levin of the Oakland Public Works Agency said the settlement calls for augmenting the city's illegal dumping collection program and having amnesty collection days for large items such as tires, appliances and mattresses.