The Sunnyvale Sun
News
Trash sorters face hazards, seek higher wage
By JASON GOLDMAN-HALL and SAMANTHA ROBERTSON
At the Starbucks at 795 E. El Camino Real in Sunnyvale, beginning baristas make $9 an hour and get benefits. But just 51/2 miles away at the Sunnyvale Materials Recovery and Transfer station, sorters make a dollar less sorting through garbage bags full of trash, hazardous material and other waste to make sure those coffee cups get recycled properly.
SMaRT station workers went on strike in August 2004 to demand better pay. At the time, the city of Sunnyvale demanded Green Team/Zanker--which has a city contract to run the station--explain why workers were being paid at low rates.
The Sunnyvale City Council unanimously voted on June 20 to approve a request for proposals from contractors that would include higher pay for workers.
Sunnyvale resident Tom Mendoza, a SMaRT employee for 13 years, said the council decision was a good start to resolving the longstanding wage discrepancy.
"The pay the council agreed on was fair, and it's about time something was done about it," said Mendoza, who first joined the company as a sorter and moved his way up to equipment operator. "For too long, we've been working with these wages and no paid vacation and no paid sick leave."
Mendoza said the task of sorting through commercial, residential and curbside waste has been particularly arduous for sorters since a 2000 state law required waste management companies to recycle at least 50 percent of the trash they handle.
Mendoza, whose shift starts as early as 5 a.m., said he sometimes can't tell his family how long he'll be working on a given day because rain and poor weather conditions often increase the difficulty of sorting through the trash.
The current, contested contract expires at the end of 2007, and the city was going to automatically put out new requests for proposals. With the ongoing struggle over wages, however, the council took a closer look at the item. A 21/2 hour public hearing resulted.
The basis for the city's decision that wages were too low came from the use of "prevailing wage" standards set by the California Department of Industrial Relations. A prevailing wage is the amount paid the largest number of employees who do the same job for a certain company.
On July 24, 2004, the DIR set the prevailing wage based on sorters at San Jose's California Waste Solutions facility who were paid $20.80.
By comparison, Sunnyvale sorters were paid a base wage of $8 an hour and health benefits equal to $1.95 an hour. In all, they made less than half the prevailing wage.
According to a wage survey conducted by city staff in June, sorters at California Waste Solutions make as much as $15 hourly, with additional benefits.
But due to a number of errors in calculations and determinations by both the DIR and Green Team/Zanker, Sunnyvale staff was unable to fully review all the information until this month.
The June 20 meeting resulted in two courses of action for the city, one aimed at improving the future and one set to resolve the problems of the past.
For the future, the city approved the proposal and included a base salary--determined by council--of $18.52. The council decided not to go with the prevailing wage because it has been contested in the past and is determined by the DIR at its discretion, so the sample size can change. In the past, both Sunnyvale and the entire county of Santa Clara have been used as sample populations.
In addition, because the job can be so hazardous, the council is requiring health benefits be provided.
Green Team/Zanker's Todd Storti and Specialty Solid Waste and Recycling's Jerry Nabhan both said they would bid on the project. Nabhan--owner and operator of the San Jose company that does the garbage pickup for Sunnyvale--said he has had his eye on the SMaRT Station since it was first opened.
Nabhan said he pays his truck drivers approximately $26.55 per hour, with $7.50 of that in benefits alone. He added he would not be surprised if his company decided to offer a higher salary and benefits package to the city when it bids.
Because there is now a solid base rate set, he also said competition should be better because everyone will have to reach a certain base level to compete.
"It's put everyone at an even keel," he said.
Storti said the council's decision on the request for proposals will only help the process.
"It has just clarified things, and it makes it easier for us to put a better bid package together," he said.
While the future has been taken care of, there is still uncertainty about the ongoing labor dispute. Public works director Marvin Rose said the city will seek "enforcement action" against Green Team/Zanker for its breach of contract instructing it to provide a prevailing wage.
Rose said another "notice of breach" will be issued and, if the city is not satisfied with the response, it could seek legal action.
Storti would not comment on the ongoing dispute.
