A strike involving workers who collect trash, recycling and yard waste in Anne Arundel County has been resolved, allowing regular pickup to resume after months of disruptions, county officials announced Saturday.
Workers represented by Teamsters Local 570 had been on strike since September against their employer, Ecology Services Inc., one of the companies contracted by the county for curbside collections. As a result, there have been disruptions to collections in Pasadena, Severna Park, Odenton, Laurel and Maryland City.
The labor dispute was resolved with a new collective bargaining agreement, the county announced Saturday. The details of the agreement were not made public.
“I’m pleased that curbside collection services will soon return to normal for our residents,” Anne Arundel County Executive Steuart Pittman said in a statement.
Pittman, a Democrat, thanked other contractors and county public works employees who “stepped up” to keep curbside collection going the past three months. During that time, some collections were delayed and residents were told to leave their items at the curb until they were collected.
The county was able to keep trash collections on time in the affected areas, but recycling and yard waste pickup was delayed by up to two days during the strike, officials said.
Collections should return to normal the week of Dec. 2, Pittman said.
Neither Ecology Services nor Teamsters Local 570 could immediately be reached for comment Saturday.
The Teamsters previously said they went on strike due to Ecology Services’ “greed and refusal to address serious safety concerns.”
Ecology Services had offered workers a 38-cent pay increase but refused to address issues such as trucks without air conditioning, proper seats and seat belts, the union had said.
The Teamsters had said they received no response from county government to their concerns; the county said it could not intervene in the matters of a private contractor without a legal reason to do so.
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