'Waste' Disposal
Labor and management have come together to drive privatization from the nation's capital.
By Jimmie Turner
WASHINGTON, D.C.
Handing over traditional public services to for-profit, private corporations has proved — time and again — to be bad for services and costly for taxpayers. Waste-management workers in this city are doing something positive and effective about that.
The District of Columbia has a contract with Waste Management Inc. to collect residential recyclable materials. Washington's solid-waste office was swamped with calls from irate citizens complaining about inconsistent service from the contractor. For weeks at a time, their recycling materials weren't getting collected. So Council 20 and its members teamed with managers from the Department of Public Works to improve the situation.
Last summer, the labor/management partnership conducted a demonstration project in a section of the city where the work was returned to unionized labor's hands. Within months, the customer participation rate — which had fallen to anemic levels because residents had given up on recycling — nearly tripled. Now Mayor Anthony Williams (D), once an advocate of privatization, has included in his fiscal 2005 budget a provision that will bring residential recycling back "in house." The budget is now before the city council.
Says Council Member At-Large Carol Schwartz (R), a vocal critic of contracting out who's been leading the D.C. government's fight against it: "Our union workers can do it. I've always felt that it was better to have our own workers — who are loyal to us — and to not have companies with big profits being made on us."
Benjamin Clark, a Local 2091 member and sanitation crew chief/driver, believes contractors should just use Brinks trucks and haul money away. "When I see private trucks picking up stuff, I take it as money that we're basically giving away. I don't see where this saves money. I'm glad the city is taking recycling back over."
CASE AGAINST 'WASTE.' Houston-based Waste Management has a horrendous record on disposal of non-hazardous waste. The firm — which operates in 48 states, Canada, Mexico and Puerto Rico — has a long list of failures and misdeeds dating back to the 1980s. And, they've fought off efforts by their workers to organize across the country.
When state and local governments outsource jobs to private vendors, financially shrewd managers from those companies hire people to do the work and pay them low wages with no benefits. Typically, the workers become frustrated, and vital public services deteriorate. In the District's case, Waste Management subcontracted residential recycling to two local companies that failed to get the job done, triggering the flood of customer complaints.
James Ivey, president of Local 2091 and Council 20, says labor deserved to sit with management at the decision-making table because the local's members work in various divisions of the city's waste-management-collection system.
"We were fortunate that the [former] director of public works, as well as the solid waste administrator, have been approachable. We're all progressive; we all have the same goals."
The decision to shift recycling back to city workers began when the labor/management partnership secured funding from District administrators to start the demonstration project. In addition, representatives from both sides of the coalition visited communities in the Washington metropolitan region and even California to see how they were handling similar recycling issues.
CONTRACTING: OUT. In June 2003, Ward 7 in the southeast section of the city was selected for the project. To ease the physical burden on residents and workers, wheeled carts replaced hand-carried bins. Workers operated trucks outfitted with semi-automated equipment to lift the carts and dump the materials into the vehicle hoppers.
The first phase was executed without any major glitches, and in August, the route was expanded. Customer participation ballooned from 17 to 47 percent. "This is a real coup d'état," exclaims Tom Henderson, Washington's solid waste administrator. "From a management standpoint, we're going to be able to provide a more consistent and higher level of service.
"We're also going to have happier customers and provide well-paying jobs with good benefits as opposed to outsourcing. And we're going to be able to do it for basically the same amount of money."
Because of improved customer satisfaction, the partnership was awarded $2,500. A number of the city's agencies that contract with private vendors are now talking about using public employees for the work. In addition, Public Works managers are developing innovative ways to improve such other services as bulk trash collection and pothole repairs.
"We're chipping away at the private contracts little by little," says Councilwoman Schwartz. Clearly, that's as it should be. Ivey believes that the labor/management partnership's success in stamping out privatization is due in part to Council 20 being recognized as the District's most progressive union: "We've been out there saying that we're willing to work and make a real difference."
