Garbage strike next week?

Garbage-truck drivers will gather at their union meeting hall in Tukwila on Easter to review the status of contract negotiations and decide whether to go on strike.

The garbage workers' two employers said they were hopeful they could resolve their differences with drivers by Sunday, but a union negotiator said Thursday it wasn't clear that a strike could be avoided.

"If we don't have something significant to show our members on Sunday, we're not going to be able to hold them back," Teamsters Local 174 Secretary Treasurer Dan Scott said.

If talks break down, a strike could disrupt garbage service for 2 million residents and thousands of businesses in King and Snohomish counties. The haulers say replacement drivers, mostly company supervisors from other areas, would give top priority to "essential public services" such as hospitals and nursing homes.

Allied Waste and Waste Management said negotiators have reached tentative agreement on overtime rules, one of the key issues in negotiations, but Scott said some details remained to be worked out.

That leaves wages, benefits and other issues unresolved. Drivers have complained about the approximately $300 they contribute monthly to health-care premiums under their old contract, which expired two weeks ago. About 600 drivers are represented by the union.

Experienced drivers earn $24.45 an hour.

Impact if union walks

Drivers for Allied Waste and Waste Management collect residential and commercial waste in all of King County except in Enumclaw, Vashon Island and Skykomish. They also collect garbage in Mill Creek, Mountlake Terrace, Arlington, Granite Falls and much of unincorporated Snohomish County.

If haulers are short-handed because of a strike, King County public-health officials say, top priority for collection will be hospitals and nursing homes, followed, in order, by food-processing plants, restaurants and other commercial establishments, apartments and condominiums, and finally single-family homes.

Yard-waste collection in Seattle would be a low priority, and recycling pickup could stop if Teamsters Local 117 drivers exercise their contract right to honor Teamsters 174 picket lines.

The union and Allied Waste agreed Thursday to hold additional talks Saturday. Drivers and Waste Management are expected to be bargaining today, and both sides said they are willing to keep talking if progress is being made.

Nels Johnson, municipal-affairs manager for Allied, said there was "outstanding progress" during bargaining Tuesday and Wednesday. "We remain optimistic that we will get to a fair and reasonable agreement," he said.

The union's Scott also saw progress in the talks with Allied, but said bargaining Thursday with Waste Management was "a little bogged down."

Jerry Hardebeck, Waste Management's director of public-sector services for Washington, said negotiators could work late into the night Saturday. A strike was avoided in 2000, he noted, when a contract was finalized at 3:30 on a Sunday morning.

Michael Raines, a foreman and driver for Allied Waste in Seattle, said he typically works 10 to 14 hours a day and he wants to be able to spend more time with his wife and his three school-age daughters. He also worries that any wage gains in a new contract would be negated by higher employee contributions for health care.

But Raines said he was optimistic about reaching agreement: "I think cooler heads will prevail. I don't think a strike does anyone any good on either side."

Garbage drivers picked up support from a contingent of religious and community leaders at a news conference in front of the Allied/Rabanco transfer station in Seattle's Sodo neighborhood Wednesday.

Lawrence "Ricky" Willis, pastor of True Vine Holiness Missionary Baptist Church, a former garbage worker, said, "We as church leaders are here to let them know that, rain, sleet or hail, we're here to support them."

The area's most recent garbage strike disrupted service for about 21,000 Seattle customers for three days in 1997. A two-day strike in 1995 affected 40,000 customers in South King County.

The region may be more vulnerable to larger garbage strikes now because most of the small, locally owned companies that once dominated the industry here have been bought out by the country's two largest garbage haulers, Houston-based Waste Management and Scottsdale, Ariz.-based Allied.

Keith Ervin: 206-464-2105 or kervin@seattletimes.com