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Republic Services, Teamsters Resume Contract Talks
YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – The bargaining team of Local 377 of the Teamsters union and Republic Services/Allied Waste management are scheduled to resume talks next week in an effort to reach a new labor contract, a company official says.
"We continue to plug away at it," said Douglas Dunn, general manager of Republic Services' business unit 145, which includes the company's waste hauling and Carbon Limestone Landfill operations in the Mahoning Valley.
Dunn said that union officials and management have scheduled Feb. 20 and 21 to resume negotiations. The most recent collective bargaining agreement expired Oct. 31, and hourly employees have been working without a contract since.
Much of the discussion is likely to involve the nature of the company's employee retirement plan, Dunn said, which is administered through the Teamsters’ Central States Pension Fund.
"Wages have never been a sticking point in the past," Dunn said. "We pay very well." Drivers, he added, earn an average of $50,000 a year in the Youngstown area.
Rather, Dunn said, Republic wants to move future retirement contributions into a 401(k) plan administered by the company.
"These are future contributions," Dunn clarifies. "We're not asking employees to take anything from the existing fund."
In 2010, officials representing Central States informed Congress that the pension fund would be insolvent within 10 years.
The plan was dealt another blow in recent months when Hostess announced it would close its plants and place 18,000 workers on layoff, Dunn noted. That company owes the Central States plan $12 million, which is likely to be lost.
"This fund is going to be insolvent and there's nothing changing that," Dunn noted.
Under the company's proposal, Republic Services would make a lump-sum payment into the 401(k) for each employee, Dunn said. The amount would be determined by the employee's years of service and age.
In some cases, the amount could be as high as $50,000, the general manager said. He indicated that a union counterproposal could drive the initial contribution even higher.
Calls to Teamsters Local 377's Secretary-Treasurer Ralph "Sam" Cook were not returned.
In November, Cook told The Business Journal that the new plan would require the employee to contribute 3% to the fund, and the company match that.
However, he said, the company could not guarantee the union that the fund would be in place at the time an employee retires. "They can't guarantee anything," he stated.
Teamsters Local 377 represents 80 waste haulers and landfill operators in the Youngstown area.
Dunn said that communities shouldn't be concerned about a disruption of service.
"We continue to have a good working relationship with the union’s business agents," Dunn remarked. "That relationship is still intact."
Copyright 2013 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.
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