For six days, the trash piled up.
Last week, unionized employees of Republic Services, the Arizona-based waste hauler contracted by the city of Chula Vista to pick up trash from residential properties and businesses, walked off the job in solidarity with striking sanitation workers 3,000 miles away in Boston.
The familiar rumble of garbage trucks went silent on city streets and trash quickly accumulated in bins, dumpsters and alleyways.
Residents were livid.
“There is no excuse for this,” said Rick Hatcher at a special City Council meeting called on Monday to address the trash issue. “We have no Plan B…Thanks for dumping on your own community.”
“It was frustrating for us, for sure,” said West Chula Vista resident Amanda Yamane. “We had a 40-plus person party on July 4, and our trash cans were overflowing…We just felt we were left with no options.”
Residents at the packed Monday Council meeting were especially upset that the city appeared caught off guard by the walkout. Just three years ago, employees of Republic Services staged an even longer work stoppage – five weeks – protesting low pay and other workplace conditions.
“I’m shocked this is happening again,” said resident Mary Davis. “I thought we would have learned a lesson last time around. Why is there not a trigger clause [in Chula Vista’s franchise agreement with Republic Services] so we can get another service” in the event of a strike?
Davis’ question about the city’s seeming helplessness in the face of a labor dispute centered thousands of miles away was repeated by nearly every speaker at Monday’s Council meeting.
But while Council members, along with representatives from Republic Services and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, took pains to assure residents that they were working feverishly to resolve differences and prioritize trash collection in high-need areas, no one answered Davis’ basic question: Why were residents left holding the (trash) bag?
One possible answer is that both Republic Services and the labor unions representing the company’s and other blue-collar workers in Chula Vista are deeply embedded in city politics, making it difficult for city leaders to issue abrupt demands that go against the interests of key allies.
Over the years, both Republic Services and numerous organized labor groups have been generous donors to a wide range of Chula Vista city officials and causes.
Since 2016, Republic Services and its employees have given thousands of dollars in campaign donations to elected leaders of both political parties and helped to pass several ballot measures advanced by city officials.
Recipients of the company’s largesse include Mayor John McCann, former Mayor Mary Casillas Salas, McCann’s 2022 mayoral campaign opponent Amar Campa-Najarr and disgraced former Councilmember Andrea Cardenas.
The company also gave $15,000 last year to support renewal of Proposition P, a half-cent sales tax increase initially approved by voters in 2016 to fund city infrastructure. Other company involvement in city affairs includes a $2,500 donation in support of a 2018 public safety ballot initiative and sponsorship of the city’s beloved holiday Starlight Parade.
At the same time, numerous San Diego labor unions, including the Teamsters, have been prominent backers of many Democrats on the Chula Vista Council. To pick one example at random, an independent expenditure committee backed by just one of several organized labor coalitions in San Diego, spent more than $30,000 last year mailing ads to voters on behalf of Democratic Council candidate Cesar Fernandez, who now represents Chula Vista’s District 4.
Fernandez’s union support is not unusual among Democratic leaders in the city. All current Democrats on the City Council received generous direct and indirect backing from labor unions. For many Democrats in South San Diego County, unions are a primary – sometimes the only – source of campaign cash.
On Monday, those conflicting alliances were on full display. Democratic Councilmembers voiced sympathy with residents’ concerns, especially the needs of seniors and residents in crowded apartment buildings.
But many devoted the bulk of their remarks to expressing support for the yellow-shirted Teamsters who showed up to the meeting en masse to plead their cause.
At the same time, Councilmembers declined to declare a state of emergency that would have empowered the city to redirect its own workers to collect garbage. That in turn could have put pressure on Republic Services and workers to settle their differences.
And it turns out the city bypassed an opportunity last year to strengthen its hand in the event of a trash strike.
The city’s 10-year franchise agreement with Republic Services expired last year. Councilmembers could have asked to reexamine the contract, especially an obscure provision that exempts the company from liability or the obligation to collect garbage in the event of a labor-related work stoppage.
Instead, City Manager Maria Kachadoorian unilaterally extended the agreement unaltered for another seven years. The extension did not require City Council approval because the franchise agreement as approved in 2014 included an extension clause.
City spokesperson Mirella Leung Lopez said Kachadoorian extended the agreement because “the current terms are favorable to Chula Vista residents and [the agreement] ensures Chula Vista maintains rates as favorable and competitive as any other franchisee.”
Lopez said that as part of the extension, “Republic Services provided an updated Operations Plan, which included a Chula Vista Action Plan that assisted in the response to the recent [walkout] and prioritized waste collection at hospitals, large multi-family and commercial properties.”
In the end, larger forces saved residents from a prolonged garbage siege. The Teamsters moved their roving sympathy walkout elsewhere in San Diego County and garbage collection resumed as normal on Wednesday.
McCann said in an email to constituents that the mere possibility of Councilmembers declaring a state of emergency was enough to prompt Republic Services and employees to get back to work. Neither the company nor the union mentioned that factor in statements after the work stoppage ended.
McCann and other Councilmembers thanked residents for their patience on Wednesday.
That patience may be tested again soon. At Monday’s Council meeting, Teamsters working in Chula Vista said their contract with Republic Services expires next year.
“We are not happy with what we are being paid,” sanitation worker Edilberto Salas told Councilmembers. “We want you to know what’s going on with us.”
In other words, the city could be looking for Plan B again sooner than anyone wants.
Aguirre Staffs Up Before Swearing-In
Recently elected San Diego County Supervisor Paloma Aguirre will be sworn in at 9:30 a.m. Tuesday at the San Diego County Administration Center in downtown San Diego.
This week, Aguirre, who relinquishes her current job as mayor of Imperial Beach when she joins the Board of Supervisors next week, named senior members of her county staff.
Foremost among the hires is chief of staff Paul Worlie, who served in the same role for former Democratic Supervisor Nathan Fletcher.
Fletcher, who resigned from the Board in 2023 amid sexual harassment allegations, was a key architect of Democrats’ ascension to power in county government after generations of Republican dominance.
Worlie is an experienced political insider and will help Aguirre navigate county bureaucracy and enact her and fellow Board Democrats’ agenda.
Assisting Worlie will be Aguirre’s campaign manager, Aida Castañeda, who previously helped steer District 4 Supervisor Monica Montgomery Steppe’s 2023 supervisorial campaign and served as political director for Fletcher’s wife, former state Assemblymember Lorena Gonzalez.
Other staff include Policy Director Lyle Pavuk, who currently serves as policy advisor to Montgomery Steppe; Director of Community Engagement Paola Martinez Montes; Communications Director Diane Castañeda; and Executive Assistant Brenda Arguelles.
In Other News
The Port of San Diego has been busy in South County. The Union-Tribune recently covered an ambitious waterfront recreation proposal on Port property south of the recently opened Gaylord Pacific hotel. The Port also secured a $5.5 million federal grant to repair portions of the National City Marine Terminal and committed $2 million in matching funds to build a National City section of the Bayshore Bikeway.
The Bonita Museum will host a reception Saturday highlighting its current exhibition of students and recent graduates of San Diego State University’s Masters of Fine Arts program. The exhibit, titled “ACCESS,” features paintings, textiles, ceramics and other artworks spotlighting diversity in the art world. The reception is at 3 p.m. Saturday, July 19, at the museum, 4355 Bonita Rd.
South County Shakespeare lovers, rejoice. The Southwestern College Theatre Arts Department will stage two Shakespeare plays this summer: The tragedy “Macbeth” and a musical version of the comedy “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.” Performances run July 23 to August 2 at the Southwestern College Performing Arts Center, 900 Otay Lakes Rd. More information and tickets here.
The answer is simple. Mayor McCann did not win the County Board of Supervisor seat, he was favored for. So, now he’s back to doing a job he clearly doesn’t want.
This is/was, a secondary strike and is usually prohibited in most contracts. A labor union can strike with prior notice for local working conditions only.
I ran an industrial facility represented by the Teamsters, they will push until you push back. There should be all kinds of consequences for the Union as a result of this strike.
Still waiting for news about G. Newsom’s spending problems , the overboard programs and the underlying attempt to destroy prop. 13, as well as the vast number of middle income people and employers leaving the state.