Dive Brief:

• About 120 Republic Services workers represented by the International Brotherhood of Teamsters at two Phoenix collection facilities ratified a contract that secures a 19% wage hike, enhanced training pay, a 135% hourly rate for vacation, sick leave and holidays and other benefits, the union announced Tuesday.
• The deal is a win for Teamsters Local 104, which has been organizing the shops just outside Republic’s corporate headquarters for more than a year. Teamsters accused Republic Services of running a “nasty union-busting campaign” to avoid coming to an agreement.
• Negotiations continue at a third yard organized by the Teamsters. At that facility, the first to vote for representation in the area, negotiations have paused as Republic filed to vacate the workers’ petition.

Dive Insight:

Organizing in the Phoenix area has proven particularly contentious for the Teamsters, which represent more than 7,000 Republic Services workers nationwide. The union has filed at least six unfair labor charges against Republic since the first facility to organize, known as the south yard, did so in October 2022. The north and east yards, where workers won a contract, began organizing early last year.

Chuck Stiles, director of the Teamsters’ Solid Waste and Recycling Division, called the difficult negotiations a “shameless example of corporate greed” in a statement. 

“It is sad that a company generating such vast wealth is fighting tooth and nail to prevent its workers from getting a fair shake,” Stiles said.

An unnamed Republic Services representative did not respond directly to the Teamsters’ claim of “union-busting,” but offered a statement via email.

“We have reached a contract agreement with the union representing employees at two of our facilities in the Phoenix area that is fair for our employees, our customers and our company. We value our employees and their commitment to our company, and respect their right to engage in collective bargaining,” the statement read.

The new contract secures a $1,000 bonus for all workers 14 days after the contract is ratified, and locks in a $1.50 pay increase in the first year and $1.25 pay increase for the three subsequent years on the contract, according to Josh Graves, vice president of Teamsters Local 104. Both yards’ contracts expire at the same time, which the union said enhances the workers’ bargaining power ahead of the next contract negotiation.

The contract also secures a pay rate for workers on vacation above base scale because they miss out on the opportunity for overtime, said Graves. The union did not secure language getting the Republic workers on the Teamsters’ pension fund, but Graves said that would be a priority for the union in the next contract.

He said a couple of other priorities, including language regarding strike protections, were also left to the next contract in part because the union wanted to secure a deal before their initial bargaining period expired on March 28. Republic workers with Local 104 had voted to authorize a strike in February, but ultimately did not do so.

Teamsters officials have argued that Republic Services ran out the clock on negotiations at the south yard, the first Phoenix-area facility to organize in this campaign. Republic is now seeking to have the union decertified there, but the Teamsters have filed for an injunction with the National Labor Relations Board forcing Republic back to the table to negotiate a contract.

“We foresaw them doing the same things that they did in the south yard to try and pull recognition and try and make us go through the labor board,” Graves said. “The guys [in the north and east yards] did not want to go through that, as well as us.”

Teamsters negotiators have called out Republic for their slow negotiation style, which they say has dragged out the contract process for more than a year. As of last fall, Local 104 and the hauler had come to an agreement on some contract language, including truck safety standards and time off, but were still far apart on wages and pensions.

Republic Services CEO Jon Vander Ark said the company is “pro-employee” when discussing labor in a recent CNBC interview. He noted about a third of the company’s frontline workers were unionized but spread out over more than 100 chapters because of the local nature of the business.

“We want to get it right. We want to have market-competitive wages so that the best people come to our site rather than other sites. At the same time, you don't want to get out of market because that reduces the competitiveness of your team and ultimately that ends up costing jobs,” Vander Ark said.

Graves thinks this first contract will help the Teamsters’ position at the remaining facility, demonstrating the kinds of protections that workers can get if they stick with the negotiating process. Besides the pay bump at unionized yards, Graves noted that employees covered under the contract are now disciplined through a just-cause procedure, while non-union facilities have at-will employment.

“We were able to figure out a pathway for this group so we should be able to figure out a pathway for that one,” Graves said. “As the details get out and the guys at the yards talk to some of the other drivers, I think it'll help.”

Republic Services reported about 23% of its overall workforce was unionized in 2023, roughly the same level as the previous year.