This week marks a dramatic change for a group of Waste Management Scale Operators and Operations Specialists, as they go to work for the first time with the protections of a Teamster contract. The contract, which was unanimously ratified over the weekend, provides substantial increases to wages, medical, and retirement benefits for the group of almost 30 workers at eight different Waste Management facilities in the Puget Sound area. These Waste Management employees were the first of their work classification nationwide to successfully organize, and have now joined Teamsters Local 174 following this contract ratification vote.

“It is difficult to overstate how monumentally important this contract is for these workers,” said Teamsters Local 174 Secretary-Treasurer Rick Hicks. “Not only will they have the highest-quality, affordable Teamster healthcare and a Teamster pension, but most saw wage increases in the double-digits – a truly life-changing difference for a group largely composed of women who had been historically underpaid and disrespected. This contract rights the wrongs of the past, and this group is extremely proud that their fight for dignity and respect has paid off so well for themselves and their families.”

“It was truly an honor to have been part of the team that achieved such an unprecedented contract,” Hicks continued. “This new group clearly shares the brand of militant leadership our Union embodies. I would also like to thank the nearly seven hundred sister and brother Teamsters at the three separate Locals of 117, 174 and 231, who work for Waste Management and fully supported this new group of employees in their fight for a fair contract.”

“This is truly the union difference in action,” Hicks concluded. Founded in 1909, Teamsters Local 174 represents 8,400 working men and women in the Seattle