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When Ricardo Hernandez launched his career as a refuse collector in Palo Alto nearly two decades ago, the business was in some ways dirtier — and more grueling — than it is today.
Working under PASCO, the city’s former contractor for solid waste collection, Hernandez recalled carrying cans by hand as part of a two-person crew. In later years, as a garbage assistant, he would wheel cans filled with disposed material along residential streets. He remained in the job as GreenWaste took over from PASCO in 2008 and introduced new technologies, most notably automated trucks.
“It’s much better for our bodies,” Hernandez, who now works as a driver in the residential neighborhoods, said in an interview.
This past weekend, Hernandez and 40 of his colleagues at GreenWaste Palo Alto welcomed another change that they hope will make their lives easier: their first-ever collective bargaining agreement. As part of the deal, Palo Alto’s haulers will now get pensions, better health benefits and salary adjustments that will make their pay comparable with those in other area jurisdictions, according to union members.
The agreement has been more than a year in the making. During the pandemic, Hernandez led the organization effort for his GreenWaste team, which culminated in the group joining Teamsters Local 350 in November 2022. The local specializes in solid waste and recycling employees.
Robert Sandoval, president of Local 350, said that when it comes to unionization, GreenWaste was the last holdout in its jurisdiction, which stretches from San Francisco to San Bernardino County. GreenWaste has two branches, one in Palo Alto and another in San Jose, and its efforts to organize the San Jose workers during the pandemic fell four votes short, he said.
In Palo Alto, by contrast, more than 80% of the employees opted to join the Teamsters. The employees and the union then spent more than a year negotiating with GreenWaste over a contract, which was ratified by a 32-1 vote on Feb. 24.
“Working hand in hand with the company, we were able to get a pretty historic contract for this group that meets the standard of other collective bargaining agreements and gives these members a voice, which they didn’t have before,” Sandoval said in an interview. “A lot of fringe benefits that they didn’t have previously without the collective bargaining agreement.”
Neither the Teamsters nor GreenWaste would provide the text of the agreement to this publication. But Sandoval said that among the biggest benefits that the new deal provides to the workers is pensions — a standard feature of other hauler contracts that has been conspicuously missing in Palo Alto.
“We were able to bargain and negotiate a pension for this group at a pretty considerable rate for a fist-time contract,” Sandoval said. “Credit to the bargaining team that we had and to GreenWaste for stepping up and doing the right thing for these workers and realizing that there is an area standard that needs to be met.”
The contract also created clear job classifications with salaries based on market rates. Before, different drivers had different rates. Now, they are making the same salaries, which are based on their classification.
“It’s equal pay for equal work, as we say,” Sandoval said.
Hernandez said he and his colleagues also appreciate the fact that employees now have a voice in negotiating with their employer and a grievance process for addressing any workplace conflicts. They also wanted to make sure that their pay and benefits are comparable to those in other cities.
“We wanted to be in the same paying field as other companies around us,” Hernandez said. “That’s why we specifically wanted Local 350, because they are the ones that are handling the companies around the areas.”
GreenWaste declined to say how much the new collective bargaining agreement would cost the company or what the rate impact would be for Palo Alto customers.
“GreenWaste of Palo Alto has a long history of commitment to City of Palo Alto ratepayers and the wellbeing of our employees,” the company said in a statement.
City Council member Vicki Veenker, who supported the organization effort, lauded the new deal, which she said took a lot of persistence from both sides. During the Feb. 26 council meeting, she publicly congratulated both GreenWaste and Teamsters Local 350 for getting to the finish line.
“The negotiations have persisted and persisted and the contract was ratified on Saturday,” Veenker said. “Our workers here in Palo Alto will now get the same compensation as surrounding cities, which is really important to our Zero Waste efforts, which is really important to our sustainability goals in the city.”
Excellent.
Congratulations.