O.C. trash strike ends; talks ongoing

About 300 truck drivers, mechanics and welders voted Thursday to end an 11-day strike that had disrupted trash pickups throughout northern Orange County.

“We felt that it was in everybody’s best interests to return to work,” said Jay Phillips, a spokesman for Teamsters Local 396, which represents the workers. “I’m encouraged.”

Will Flower, a spokesman for Taormina Industries, said, “I think they decided that it didn’t make sense to stand around watching trucks go by anymore.”

Taormina had hired 200 nonunion replacement workers from out of state to perform the strikers’ jobs. “We’re very pleased to have our workers back.”

Though the two sides have not ironed out their differences, company and union officials said they had agreed to “work diligently” toward ratification of a new five-year contract, which they hope to accomplish by Thanksgiving.

In the meantime, they said, Taormina employees will return to work today under the terms of their previous agreement, which expired this year.

“Everything is back on the table,” Phillips said.

The workers went on strike Oct. 23 after 20 days of contract negotiations collapsed. The company’s most recent offer included a 25% pay increase over five years, similar to the deal accepted by other Teamster waste collection workers in Orange County.

But the Taormina workers, who earn roughly $16 an hour, said they had other concerns, including what they called the high out-of-pocket cost of their healthcare and issues related to “dignity and respect” in the workplace.

“The company has said they will listen to whatever we put on the table,” Phillips said Thursday. In addition, he said, “management and union leadership is committed to finding medical care that’s affordable to the employees.”

Taormina provides trash collection services for Anaheim, Brea, Fullerton, Garden Grove, Placentia, Yorba Linda, Villa Park and Chino Hills. Although the strike initially caused some service delays for residents and businesses in those cities, Flower said, most had been quickly remedied by the replacement workers.

“We were able to keep up with the garbage, and it should be pretty easy to get right back on schedule,” he said. “We had a tremendous effort by our replacement workers.”

david.haldane@latimes.com