Memphis sanitation workers say Republic biased
The chief steward for his union of around 80 sanitation truck drivers, Kevin Clark’s phone rang in early June. A fellow driver whose paycheck was “almost half of what he should’ve got” was on the other end of the line, Clark said.
“He called me, first yelling, hollering. And then he came on down and his voice went to trembling,” said Clark, a 47-year-old father of two who has been a sanitation truck driver since his late 20s. “He was like, ‘I can’t make it like this. We got to fix this.’ ”
A month later, that driver still hasn’t been properly paid, Clark says. But they and others have filed a complaint against their employer, Republic Services, that they hope will bring a solution to a range of problems workers say they’ve faced under new management.
Announced July 12 by the drivers’ union, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, the complaint filed with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission accuses Republic of “continuous efforts to make work conditions hostile and malicious for black workers,” according to a Teamsters news release.
The second largest waste company in the US
The federal body with whom workers filed, commonly known as the EEOC, is responsible for upholding laws protecting workers from discrimination.
The EEOC previously ordered Republic, in 2010, to pay a $3 million settlement to 21 sanitation workers and supervisors in Nevada who were fired because of their age, some after working more than 25 years for the company.
Republic has not yet responded to a July 12 voicemail and email from The Commercial Appeal requesting comment on the Memphis and Millington workers’ complaint.
A Fortune 500 company, Republic is the secondlargest waste management corporation in the US, with approximately 36,000 employees operating in 41 states and Puerto Rico, according to NASDAQ figures and the company’s website.
Republic operates three facilities in Shelby County, according to Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation (TDEC) permits: The South Shelby landfill near the Mississippi border, a hauling facility on Homewood, east of the airport, and the North Shelby landfill, beyond city limits in Millington.
Typically working 10 or 10.5-hour days, Clark drives to-and-from the Millington location, which received more than 1,900 tons of garbage per day, six days a week in 2018, according to a TDEC survey.
That’s the equivalent of one-fifth of the weight of the Eiffel Tower.
“There have been trying times,” Clark said of his working conditions. “But being able to support your family makes you stay and deal with a lot of different things.”
He recognizes that for many in Shelby County, his $23.97 hourly wage might seem beyond reproach. But it wouldn’t, Clark said, “If they work the hours we work, drive the trucks we drive. Deal with the landfill situation, the recycling, the customers, the heat, the rain, the snow, going to work when you in pain, sick — we don’t make enough money, but we make a living.”
Although, Clark says the discriminatory treatment that predominantly black drivers have allegedly endured under new management is “not worth it” and “totally wrong.”
‘It’s time to do something’
After repeatedly going through the regular grievance process, Clark said he felt it was time to do something. “It’s just not getting any better,” he said. “Sometimes you gotta stand up.”
Among the patterns of issues described in Republic workers’ EEOC complaint:
❚ Short paychecks for vacation pay, in violation of the union’s contract. Because the job involves fluctuating hours that typically surpass a 40-hour work week, the company proposed paying a vacation rate that represents an average of hours worked over 13 recent weeks, Clark says. In the last few months, at least six workers have not been paid the average, resulting in dramatically decreased checks that have not yet been fixed, Clark said.
❚ Safer start times, which were recently pushed back to 6 a.m. for workers in Millington. “Coming in later in this business will put you in harm’s way because at a certain time everyone else is going to be up and start going to work. Whereas you’re backing out of alleys, and you backing into an alley, just being in two rush-hour traffics,” said Clark.
❚ Discriminatory discipline in which Clark says more outspoken workers have faced harsher penalties for the same missteps, such as accidentally damaging a dumpster, than workers who are close to management. In the last few months, Clark says he’s seen 8-9 drivers fired.
Dr. King’s legacy
That he’s fighting for the rights of sanitation workers in the city where Dr. Martin Luther King was assassinated 51 years ago, while in town to support the historic sanitation workers’ strike, is not lost on Clark.
“Thank God for Dr. King coming here before I was born and carving a path to where we are now,” Clark said.
Shaped by King’s legacy, Clark says the long-term solution is solidarity. “We are one blood. We are human beings and we should treat each other as so,” Clark said. “If you want things to be better in Memphis, in these United States, we have to start treating each other as equals,” he said.
But no matter what happens in the short term, Clark says he’s ready. “I work with a good group of guys. I work with a strong union. I have faith in them and I have faith in God. So I’m not afraid.”
Sarah Macaraeg is an award-winning journalist who writes investigations, features and the occasional news story for The Commercial Appeal. Macaraeg can be reached at sarah.macaraeg@commercialappeal. com, 901-426-4357 or on Twitter @seramak.