Dive Brief:

• Sanitation workers in Memphis, Tennessee are fighting to collect back-pay which was withheld during a suspension.
• Workers at Republic Services were on strike last April and city workers temporarily filled the vacancies; city workers were threatened by the striking employees for crossing the picket line, prompting suspensions when some of the workers failed to report to work.
• ​The dispute is expected to go to arbitration.

Dive Insight:

The union states that the city did not keep the employees safe, while the city maintains that instructions were given but not followed. When questioned about threats to workers, the Memphis Chief Administrative Officer said that the threats made to employees were "unfounded." Republic did experience violence months earlier when a gun was fired at a different location during a strike.