Regular Garbage Collectors Back To Work In East Bay

OAKLAND, Calif., Jul. 30, 2007 (KGO) (KGO) -- Regular garbage collectors in the East Bay are on the job for the first time in four weeks. Waste Management says things are running smoothly this first morning back after the union approved a contract over the weekend.

A relieved Waste Management is reporting that garbage trucks went out on time and there was no absenteeism.

Rarely has a truck filled with smelly, rotting garbage been such a pretty sight. For the first time in four weeks all of Waste Management's 500 regular drivers were back on the job.

Gustavo Campos, garbage worker "We are back and we are going to get everything. We are going to clean everything up now."

The lockout officially ended over the weekend when teamsters union drivers voted 363 to 3 to approve a new contract. Both sides credited Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums for helping to broker the deal. Now the drivers have to pickup piles of trash that have accumulated in some neighborhoods that replacement workers missed. It is safe bet that 200,000 Waste Management customers from Oakland to San Ramon to Livermore are today literally breathing a sigh of relief.

Clara Carmona, Oakland resident: "I don't see anymore garbage in the streets."

It is a five year contract deal and we are not sure if in the year 2012, when the negotiation process starts again, whether Oakland or Alameda County will have such strong memories of this labor dispute and the big piles of trash that they will opt for a new waste hauler. As for now, trash is being picked up in Oakland, some other cities and the unincorporated area of the county.

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