The city and its environmental services and animal control workers have come to a five-year contract deal that includes pay raises and a new position meant to attract job seekers.
Under the new agreement, the 143 trash and recycling truck drivers and 14 animal control workers represented by Teamsters Local 249 will receive annual 3% wage increases after one year and an additional paid holiday.
The new contract also eliminates the wait time for first-year drivers and co-drivers to reach the top wage rate and adds a “loader” position that doesn’t require a driver’s license. Both measures are moves to boost recruitment, according to the city’s announcement Wednesday.
“In the past you had to get a CDL [commercial driver’s license] within six months, and now you don't even need a driver's license to be a [loader],” said Kevin Schmitt, Local 249 president. “There was a four-year progression to get to the top rate, and so they couldn't attract anybody. Drivers could go somewhere else and make top rate.”
Mr. Schmitt estimates between 40 and 50 positions are vacant. The city did not immediately confirm the number of vacancies.
Drivers will now start at $22.63, and co-drivers at $20.92. The new loader position begins at $16, but a worker who earns a CDL will receive a 50-cent raise and can apply for a co-driver position and jump to the new wage rate. Workers in the Bureau of Animal Care and Control will start at $22.08.
However, the deal was not a shoo-in, according to union officials.
“[The agreement] passed 42-40. It was close, to put it that way,” Mr. Schmitt said.
A source familiar with the vote described residual “bad blood” from environmental services workers who wanted to see overtime rates restored to time-and-a-half from the time-and-a-quarter rate instituted when the city was under the state financially distressed status, or Act 47.
According to the city’s Law Department, overtime will now be paid at time-and-a-half for any employee working a Saturday following a holiday, and at three times the rate on President’s Day, Good Friday and Veterans Day.
Mayor Bill Peduto in a Wednesday press release said that city residents “were reminded over the last challenging year, Environmental Services and Animal Control workers are essential to the quality of life in our city. I want to thank them for their service and welcome others to apply for these jobs and join us in public service.”
In March 2020, workers rallied in the Strip District outside of the city’s Bureau of Environmental Services site demanding better COVID-19 protections.
One of the bureau’s truck drivers died from complications of COVID-19 in April 2020. That same month, the city moved Public Works employees from other divisions to assist in trash and recycling collection as several drivers quarantined.
The contract will expire in 2025.
Ashley Murray: amurray@post-gazette.com
First Published: April 14, 2021, 9:49 p.m.