Big Labor Officials Wield Monopoly Power to Cut Off Vital Service
Philadelphia, Greater Boston, and other communities across the country have gotten prolonged whiffs this summer of what it means to have the provision of their vital services subject to the monopoly control of power-hungry and unscrupulous Big Labor bosses.
As a consequence of strikes called by government and Teamster union bosses, trash collection in the City of Philadelphia, much of the Boston metropolitan area, and other localities from coast to coast effectively ceased over scorching weeks in July.
Government Union Militants Mocked, Vilified Residents Taking Out Their Own Trash
A July 1 filing by a Philadelphia judge ordered 238 trash collectors to go back to work, citing a “clear and present danger” to public safety.
But American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) union militants ignored it with impunity, knowing from long experience they would suffer no serious consequences for breaking the law.
Government and Teamster kingpins conducted intimidation campaigns to prevent union-free forms of trash collection from emerging, turning communities into rat-infested dumps with an increasingly third-world standard of living.
District Council 33 (DC 33), the AFSCME local that calls the shots for trash collectors in Philadelphia, knew that undertaking a strike before one of the biggest holidays of the year, in the very city the Declaration of Independence was signed, would be negatively received by the public. It went ahead anyway.
“This was no less than a declaration of biological warfare against Philadelphians,” said National Right to Work Committee Vice President Matthew Leen.
“The pile-up of refuse in the height of summer, when temperatures routinely exceed 90 degrees and rain showers often come in, made the city of 1.6 million a toxic environment.”
The city made an effort to provide public dumping sites as an intermediate measure for residents who wanted to avoid letting their rubbish fester in front of their homes.
In response, DC 33 militants publicly condemned any locals who took their trash to the sites, or anyone who offered to do so for others, as “scabs.”
Teamster Organizer: ‘We’re Trying to Find’ the ‘Scabs,’ ‘Cut It Off at the Head’
The Teamsters garbage strike in and around Boston, still ongoing as this Newsletter goes to press in late July, has been even uglier and more dangerous than DC 33’s, which ended July 9.
Teamster bosses started their strike against Republic Services, the contracted trash collection firm for Boston and over a dozen suburban municipalities, on July 1, just like the DC 33 brass.
From the start, they have allegedly resorted to tire-slashing, threats and violence to prevent union-free Republic Services employees from collecting trash.
On July 17, a Teamster organizer even boasted to a newspaper reporter about how he and his cohorts were “trying to find” the “scabs” so they could “cut it off at the head”!
Meanwhile, Teamster kingpins have sent striking employees from Boston to places as varied as Los Angeles, Seattle, and Youngstown, Ohio, the latter being the home of the landfill for New York City, to incite “sympathy” strikes.
Mr. Leen explained: “As part of Teamster President Sean O’Brien’s ‘declaration of war’ against Republic Services, the union hierarchy had pickets set up that nonstriking Teamsters won’t dare to cross, spreading misery for additional millions.”
Monopoly Bargaining Behind Festering Garbage Pile-Up
The core problem in all of this summer’s garbage strikes is that monopoly bargaining has been weaponized by union bosses in direct opposition to the public interest.
“Along with the passage of a National Right to Work law, repeal of the federal and state laws promoting monopoly bargaining is critical in order to protect the public and individual workers from union kingpins who often do not have workers’ best interest at heart,” said Mr. Leen.
“As long as laws promoting public and private-sector monopoly bargaining remain on the books, the Philadelphia and Boston nightmares of summer 2025 are bound to keep recurring.”
This article was originally published in our monthly newsletter. Go here to access previous newsletter posts.
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