Under 'labor peace ordinance,' Teamsters begin organizing Minneapolis waste haulers

http://www.workdayminnesota.org/index.php?news_6_3891

By Steve Share
29 December 2008

MINNEAPOLIS - Teamsters Local 120 has won a neutrality agreement with Minneapolis Refuse, Inc. in a campaign to organize waste-hauling employees.
MRI, a 13-company consortium, recently was awarded a five-year contract by the City of Minneapolis to continue collecting residential garbage and recycling in approximately one-half of the City.

But first, MRI needed to agree to abide by the City's 2007 "labor peace" ordinance, which requires that contractors "…shall be or become signatory to a valid collective bargaining agreement…" when the city has a "proprietary interest" in uninterrupted delivery of services. The labor organization contract with the employer, in turn, must include a no-strike pledge.


A worker for one of MRI's waste haulers in south Minneapolis. All MRI members have signed neutrality agreements with Teamsters Local 120 in the union's campaign to organize workers hauling waste under a contract with the City of Minneapolis.

Labor Review photo


Once the City determined that the labor peace ordinance should apply to the waste-hauling contract, the stage was set for Teamsters Local 120 to initiate organizing non-union MRI.

"We're rolling. We've got a team of international organizers that are coming in to work with Local 120," reported Bradley A. Slawson, Jr., Teamsters Local 120 president.

Each of the 13 MRI members — and MRI — have signed identical agreements with Teamsters Local 120, pledging to stay neutral in the Teamsters' organizing campaign.

FULL story at link.