Oakland's Garbage Strike:
The Pretenses
For a number of weeks, Oakland and Oaklanders have pretended that there is no garbage strike going on, but now in its maturity, the mayor of Oakland has had to take this matter to court because garbage is starting to accumulate to an unhealthy extent.
The Alameda County Waste Management company that handles garbage for Alameda County locked out its workers two days after their contract expired and hired hundreds of temporary workers, using rented space from one of the Port of Oakland's parking lots to train them. But what is the dispute?
We know that garbage strikes can be nasty; it was in a garbage strike dispute that Martin Luther King was killed. This strike, argues Local 70, is not about money, which is the usual dispute, but it is about the power of Waste Management, a huge company, to break the union. However, Waste Management says it is not about breaking the union, it may be about not allowing the union to join with its Los Angeles union in striking. The contract in Los Angeles is due for renewing in September.
So whatever the strike is about, we know that it is not about money, directly. Nevertheless, because the Waste Management Company has a contract with the City of Oakland to pick up its waste, the mayor of Oakland has declared that company in breach of contract and that it has put Oakland in an unhealthy state.
For weeks Oaklander have pretended that they were unaffected by the strike, that it was simply a labor issue with the company and the union, and that this matter would be worked out by them. But time has caught up with them as the garbage in Oakland is slowly being picked up in the hills and sometimes not picked up at all in the flat lands.
Mayor Ron Dellums is faced with the first crisis of his new administration, and the people of Oakland are watching to see how this experienced politician will handle it.
