Trash Piles Up on 2nd Day of Strike; Walkout May Expand

As many Orange County residents grappled with uncollected trash Tuesday on Day 2 of a refuse haulers’ strike, sympathetic drivers in Irvine called in sick and others threatened to expand the walkout to much of the south county.

City and county officials advised people to bag and store their trash until next week when they hoped residential collection service would resume.

County health workers also suggested that garbage be double-bagged and barrels tightly shut to keep out disease-carrying insects and animals.

With virtually all residential service discontinued for at least 40% of county households, some people took matters into their own hands Tuesday.

“I understand why they are picketing,” said Steve Stram of Tustin, who waited about 15 minutes in line at an Anaheim trash drop-off station. “I got no problems with that. I just want to dump my trash, and if it takes a little longer, that’s OK.”

More than 700 drivers, mechanics and maintenance workers from Teamsters Local 396 walked picket lines Tuesday in the second day of a strike against four refuse companies serving at least 15 cities and unincorporated areas in Orange County, and Chino Hills in San Bernardino County.

The firms are Waste Management Inc., Rainbow Disposal, CR&R;, and Taormina Industries. Late Tuesday, a spokesman for the companies said they were seeking to meet with union leaders and a federal mediator.

Friday, members of Local 396--against the advice of their leadership--voted down a proposal that would have given them a 33.5% raise over five years, plus increases in benefits.

With their normal 15 hours of overtime weekly, average pay would increase from about $42,000 a year to $53,700. But rank-and-file workers said they would hold out for higher hourly wages.

An additional 100 sanitation workers were preparing to strike Thursday at Solag Disposal, a subsidiary of CR&R;, which serves Aliso Viejo, Dana Point, Laguna Hills, Laguna Niguel, San Clemente and San Juan Capistrano.

“We want to be on strike right now,” said Jose Polanco, a shop steward for Solag workers. “The union promised us we could walk out by Thursday. . . . We can’t wait. We want to support our brothers.”

Solag drivers were picking up trash Tuesday, but they refused to cross picket lines at local transfer stations and landfills. In San Juan Capistrano, they parked refuse trucks and waited for company supervisors to drive the rigs past picket lines.

In Irvine, which has a no-strike contract with Waste Management, company officials said 47 of its 123 drivers called in sick Tuesday, delaying pickups for recycling and green waste, such as grass clippings. Also affected were Laguna Beach, Lake Forest, Mission Viejo and Rancho Santa Margarita, which are served by Waste Management’s Irvine station.

“We are trying to minimize the inconvenience to our residents and make sure the trash gets picked up,” said Sheri Vander Dussen, Irvine’s director of community development. “We hope this only lasts a day or two.”

Waste Management Vice President Bob Coyle contends that the drivers are conducting an improper sickout in sympathy with striking union members. The company said only five or six drivers normally call in sick on any day at its Irvine station. Coyle added that Waste Management will tell the drivers to return to work or be fired.

At commercial customers across much of north and central Orange County, garbage began piling up as management drivers scrambled to keep up. Management and city officials estimated that 30% to 50% of commercial and industrial customers were being served Tuesday.

In many residential areas, trash cans remained on the streets or in garages. Santa Ana officials asked residents to ignore their garbage day this week and plan for next week, said Jim Ross, the city’s public works director.

“Most of the bin service was handled yesterday, apartments are being handled today and residential service should be back next week,” Ross said.

Many of those trucks would probably be driven by replacements--some drawn from waste company operations out of state--and that was expected to increase tensions on picket lines where the mood already was souring Tuesday.

Two picketers said they were slightly injured late Monday morning when they were struck by a sport utility vehicle that slipped through the picket line behind a truck the strikers had allowed to enter the Taormina Industries transfer station in Anaheim.

Neither man had filed a police report by early Tuesday afternoon, and Anaheim and Taormina officials said they knew nothing about the incident. Both men said they were seeking medical attention.

Teamster local leader Dan Kane vowed that strike activity would become more intense in coming days, in an effort to force employers to negotiate a more generous contract. Among other things, he said, Local 396 is preparing a door-to-door campaign across the county to pressure cities into renegotiating their trash contracts. Some union members contend that a 50-cent increase in monthly garbage bills would help pay for any future wage increases.

“We’re going to be stepping things up,” Kane said while on the picket line outside Waste Management’s Santa Ana headquarters. “We’ll be closing down some landfills soon. . . . The trash is going to pile and pile up.”

Though the walkout appeared to be spreading, there were indications that it might not last as long as the three to four weeks that some union officials had predicted.

Coyle said the companies plan to meet with the federal mediator and the union’s bargaining committee today and Thursday to discuss possibly resuming negotiations. Striking workers at CR&R; in Stanton also were considering voting today on the previously rejected offer.

“The reality is that the money they walked away from is substantial,” said Danny Bruno, secretary treasurer of Local 396, who had advised workers to accept the contract. “The workers need the money. They make about $112 a day. How much can they afford to lose?”

The decision to reject the recommendation of union leadership has piqued labor analysts.

“Many people looking at the future direction of the Teamsters want to see how the leadership responds, and how the membership responds,” said Kent Wong, director of UCLA’s Center for Labor Research and Education. “It’s a fascinating strike. They have gone directly against the local leadership, who thought this was a reasonable contract.”

*

Times staff writers Stanley Allison, Evan Halper, Jerry Hicks and Jennifer Mena contributed to this report.