OAKLAND — Twenty days without garbage pickup has taught Walter Smith an odiferous lesson about modern culture: Today's throwaway society produces a heck of a lot of trash.
"That's three weeks right there," he says, pointing to a reeking line of six trash containers and an overflow of plastic bags in front of his home. "Pretty soon the rats will be here. We're thinking about getting a cat."
Waste Management Inc., the largest garbage firm in North America, earlier this month locked 480 trash haulers out of their jobs. The rift has provoked tensions over what city officials call a looming health crisis as the company's negotiations with Teamsters Local 70 have stalled.
Oakland officials sued Waste Management last week for breach of contract, even though the firm has brought in 350 replacement workers. The lockout affects more than 200,000 customers in Alameda and Contra Costa counties.
Meanwhile, the garbage mounts -- rusting ironing boards, smashed-in TV consoles, broken-down cardboard and rotting fruit rinds that have drawn flies and forced mothers to keep their kids indoors. Panicked residents are breaking into industrial garbage bins and driving to faraway neighborhoods to drop off their trash.
Irate motorists have followed garbage trucks, demanding that they come to their homes. Frustrated residents on one block piled their trash in the middle of the road so replacement haulers would have no choice but to stop.
Lower than usual temperatures have mostly kept a lid on serious vermin, but Oakland officials are nervous. "We're three hot days away from a serious health crisis," said City Manager John Russo.
Following 1,600 complaints by residents, Oakland is considering hiring other companies to help haul away the piled-up garbage. "If both sides get dug in and refuse to give, this could go on until September," Russo said. "That means nearly an entire summer without regular trash pickup."
Issues dividing Waste Management and its workers include company contributions to employee healthcare and pension programs and a no-strike clause. Workers say the firm wants to bust the union and has taken a hard line elsewhere.
Outside company headquarters in Oakland, longtime hauler Mark Giachino held up a sign that brought honks of support from passing cars. The placard showed a figure of a red rat with the words, "Do Not Patronize." Other locked-out workers cursed and shook their fists at replacements who sheepishly drove past in company trucks.
