MEMPHIS, Tenn. —
Sanitation workers in Memphis are still on strike. They say they are fed up with garbage contractor Republic Services.
The union, Teamsters Local 667 says its members are striking over unfair labor practices, safety concerns as well as the recent death of a co-worker.
The strike has even prompted city leaders to step in.
“Republic is going to understand that Memphis is not where you come and dump your trash and you make your money, and you go home,” Republic employee James Jones said during Tuesday's protest.
Nearly a week later City Councilman J B Smiley and other leaders in Memphis joined the workers in front of the Shelby County Landfill on Malone Rd. Tuesday.
After walking off the job in protest last week Wednesday demonstrators say they are not backing down.
“As a local elected official as someone who was elected to represent each and every one of you of you here today, to make sure we do everything we can to change the laws,” Smiley said. “So, Republic Services know in the city of Memphis we stand with the people.”
Smiley’s presence alongside protesters is after he and chairman Martavius Jones along with councilwoman Swearegen-Washington wrote a letter Monday to Jason West the general manager of Republic Services asking the trash contractor to ensure safe working conditions and supporting the protesters’ demands for higher wages
“The untimely death of a beloved coworker and supervisor of thirty years at this very landfill on March 30 and these workers are demanding that Republic finally looks in their direction,” Richard Massey a community organizer and University of Memphis student said. “This is an uphill battle against corporate greed.”
Employees of the trash contractor say -- the death of a co-worker at the Shelby County Landfill was only the last straw. They are fed up with the exposure to medical waste and claim the company wants to do away with employee safety bonuses.
"Investment vehicle has been purchasing shares for some twenty years, Massey said. "We have workers here who've been working for twenty-plus years and they haven't received a single wage increase."
30-year employee Tommy Miles says the current demands by workers and community organizers are not new.
“A lot of us come in, you know, at two and three o’clock in the morning,” Miles said. “There’s a lot of unsafe things that we encounter each and every day. They worried about the bottom dollar. But we worried about each and every day being safe out here. We want to go home to see our families.”
Despite this workers say they are hopeful they will be able to negotiate a fairer contract, with more pay when negotiations continue later this week.
“Hopefully, we'll be able to get a contract,” Jones said. “What am I expecting? I don’t know. I can honestly say, I don’t know. With the way that negotiations have went; it shouldn’t have taken this long. We should have been able to been done in two sessions...”
District Attorney Steve Mulroy says these union workers have not reached out to his office about this particular case. But he welcomes them to do so and says if asked and presented with evidence showing worker exploitation his office will investigate.
"In the same month that Dr. Martin Luther King was killed to stand with the sanitation workers [they] are out here on line the line fighting for the same thing," fellow union worker Kimberly Akeabio said. "Republic you ought to be ashamed of yourself."