As the trash strike impacting Watertown and more than a dozen communities nears a third week, the Massachusetts Secretary of State reached out to Republic Services urging an end to the strike. The company also issued a statement saying that the union “did not take negotiations seriously.”
The trash strike began on July 1, 2025. Republic Services and Teamsters Local 25 met for more than nine hours on Friday, and are scheduled to return to negotiations on Tuesday.
Galvin’s Message to Trash Contractor
Secretary of State William Galvin weighed in on the strike, and sent a letter to Republic.
According to WHDH Channel 7, Galvin wrote, “I am writing to express my concern about the impact, your company’s negotiating tactics are having on the residents of the fourteen municipalities that presently have service contracts with your company.”
The letter continues, “Residents of these communities are experiencing inconvenience, disruption and hardship because of these stalled negotiations caused by the failure of your company to continue active participation. Refuse collection is an important public service that should not be conditioned on a private company’s strategy. Circumstances such as these raise serious questions whether these important public services should be left to private companies without state oversight.”
Republic’s Statement
Republic sent out a statement regarding the negotiations with Teamsters Local 25.
“Republic Services and Teamsters representatives met with a federal mediator (Friday) in an attempt to reach an agreement on a new contract for our Greater Boston employees. Unfortunately, the Teamsters did not take the negotiations seriously and refused to make any meaningful progress,” the statement reads.
According to Republic, the company offered “a nearly 16 percent wage increase immediately and an approximate 43 percent pay increase over five years.” In addition, the proposal included “zero-premium healthcare and generous retirement contributions.”
Republic’s statement said that the union is “responsible for this ongoing strike.”
“It is time for the Teamsters to get serious about negotiations so our employees can return to work,” the statement said.
Republic added that the sides have met a total of 11 days, and twice with a federal mediator. Also, 45 percent of Republic’s drivers in Greater Boston make more than $100,000 and the contract company’s offer would increase that to $140,000 by the end of the five-year contract.
A part of the Teamsters proposal that Republic objected to is “a provision that would allow them to frequently pull our employees into work stoppages in Boston over disputes in other parts of the country that have nothing to do with our employees here.”
Republic also said it has endured “threats and assaults on our employees, and rampant vandalism.”
Why didn’t Galvin address the workers who walked off the job? They have the right to strike, but it was their choice not to work, not Republic’s. Thank you for including management’s position in this article. I find one-sided statements like Galvin’s and the Human Rights Commission’s useful only as propaganda. This strike serves no one, the people least of all.
Charlie,
Your Sunday story about the Republic trash situation gives a very unbalanced view problem. It reports on Secretary Galvin’s involvement, which is new, and then gives Republic’s, statement on the status of negotiations without providing equal time to the Teamsters to give their status report.
I know you included a statement from them in your Saturday article, but nothing in the latest one, so it looks like the Republic side of things are the only facts.
Thank you for keeping us up to date on negotiations
It would be great to see some sort of cost benefit analysis on Republic or some financial statements because I suspect they can afford to pay their workers and still make a large margin. I don’t know if the Waste Management industry is a competitive landscape but having to rely on such a corporate entity isn’t good for any municipality.
And after today’s fire in Fall River, it would be great to see why Fall River couldn’t staff the department especially vis-a-vis the federal budget cuts. I suspect we will not be able to staff many departments soon, and people need to understand that the federal budget supported many local services directly or indirectly. We can’t always rely on there being a group of neighbors to be there with ladders like Clever Parra and Manny Rivera who helped get people out.