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Chuck Stiles, the newly appointed Director of the Teamsters Waste Division, received a phone call in mid-February from a frustrated member working at Republic Services. The member of Teamsters Local 728 in Atlanta, GA complained that Republic still hadn’t provided him and his co-workers accurate W-2 forms. After looking into the issue, Stiles learned that Republic Services had mailed out W-2 forms to its 30,000 employees, but soon after sent a letter to all 30,000 employees t...elling them to disregard their W-2s, and to wait for updated W-2s to be sent out “by the end of February”.

This mistake by Republic wasn’t a trivial matter. For employees, it meant exposure to potential fines for late or inaccurate tax filings, increased costs from accountants, and lost interest from tax refunds. For the company, it meant exposure to hundreds of thousands if not millions of dollars in fines from the IRS. The IRS requires companies to provide accurate W-2s to employees no later than January 31st. For every form sent out late, the company could receive fines ranging from $50 to $100, with maximum fines in the millions. There could be additional fines for sending out inaccurate filings. For a company with 30,000 employees, this could quickly add up for Republic.

Stiles took the position that if Republic workers had to pay for this mistake, so should the company. At his direction, Waste Division staff immediately contacted dozens of Local Unions representing Republic Services across the country, notifying them of the issue and providing them with an informational leaflet for distribution to their 7,000 members. The leaflet contained a phone number for the IRS, and asked workers to call and report Republic. After first contacting members, the Waste Division then reached out to Local Unions across the country with non-union Republic facilities in their area. Representatives from Local Unions volunteered to leaflet at non-union Republic facilities in Minnesota, Florida, Kentucky, Texas, Pennsylvania, Arizona, Colorado, North Carolina, and South Carolina – just to name a few. Members of Local 104 even leafleted the company’s corporate headquarters in Phoenix, AZ.

“The response has been overwhelming, both from our Local Unions and from Republic workers –union and non-union alike” said Stiles about the leafleting. “We wanted to send a message to Republic that we’re united, and ready to take action whenever necessary. They got the message loud and clear.”

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Teamsters Local Union No. 542
February 8 at 10:28 AM

Local 542 could not be any prouder of the men and women in this picture. 45 days ago, these men and women made the conscious effort to stand up to their bully e...mployer and show them that they deserve the respect of the company. Not many union members have had to fight for the privileges they have today, but it’s important to remember that in your union jobs, this is how it all started. Yesterday’s Hero’s are why you have what you have today. This is what Teamsters are made of.

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Videos
Republic/Allied Waste's replacement workers
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Being a Teamster has paid off again for Republic workers! Back in 2017, Republic converted from manual to automated waste pickup for customers in the city of Lorain, OH. Not long after, the company told drivers of their plan to rebid all of Lorain’s routes. But when the company posted the routes, drivers noticed a drop in the incentive rate compared to other cities. Once the routes took effect, drivers lost significant income, with one driver losing as much as $17,000 a year! If these drivers had been non-union the story would have ended there. But thanks to their union contract, they had a guaranteed incentive pay rate, so 8 drivers filed grievances against the company. Just this past month, an arbitrator decided in their favor, awarding back pay that could amount to as much as $250,000 overall! If you’re not part of a union, you’re an at- will employee – and that means the company WILL do whatever it wants without consequence. But as our brothers in Ohio have shown, having a union means the company has to play by the rules, and if they don’t – they’ll pay for it.
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Sanitation workers in Atlanta threaten to walk off job - clip from Fox 5 Atlanta
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