
And on Friday morning, a replacement driver was attacked with a baseball bat while collecting garbage in Long Beach. He was not seriously injured, and declined medical attention.
Neither side seems optimistic about an early resolution to the strike, which began Oct. 19 after Teamsters Local 396 rejected Waste Management's final contract offer.
Waste Management began running ads Friday seeking to hire replacement drivers on a permanents basis - an implicit threat to striking workers that they may not find their jobs waiting for them when the strike is over.
The walkout affects three yards in Compton, Carson and Sun Valley, and some 225,000 residential customers in Long Beach, Carson, Manhattan Beach, Rancho Palos Verdes, Rolling Hills Estates, Inglewood, and elsewhere.
In Long Beach, replacement crews began picking up residential recyclables on Thursday.
At the yard in Carson, strikers have taken to blocking garbage trucks as they leave in the morning
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and as they return at night. Strike organizers say the traffic backup limits the hours the replacement drivers are able to work.
"I make each one sit for a minute-and-a-half before he can come through my line," said Bill Huff, executive coordinator of Local 396. "I'm knocking out about five hours every day. They keep trying to throw me in jail but I'm still here."
Waste Management employees have called the Sheriff's Department several times to complain about obstruction and harassment. But when deputies arrive, the strikers are generally on good behavior, Sgt. Bruce Cantley said.
"We don't have the ability, unless they're paying for it, to sit there all day long," Cantley said.
As trucks returned to the yard Friday afternoon and evening, a striker playfully taunted the drivers with a bullhorn while security guards kept track of the allotted 90 seconds.
The conflict was more serious Friday morning in Long Beach, where a replacement driver reported that he was attacked with a baseball bat. The driver was collecting trash in the 3700 block of Atlantic Avenue at about 6:30 a.m. when the attacker approached and hit him in the head, Sgt. David Marander said.
The man also struck the garbage truck and fled. He was not apprehended.
Waste Management did not comment on the incident.
Jay Phillips, president of Local 396, said "We don't condone violence of any sort."
Phillips said he was not surprised that Waste Management was seeking to hire permanent replacements, but doubted that the tactic would be successful.
"This is a perfect example of the threatening, intimidating and heavy-handed tactics they use with their workers," Phillips said. "That's one of the reasons they're on strike. This company treats their workers like a commodity that's easily replaceable."
Kit Cole, a spokeswoman for Waste Management, said that striking drivers whose jobs were permanently filled would be placed on a list from which the company would hire workers as new jobs become available.
Huff said he doubted the tactic would work because the labor market is tight.
"They can't find drivers normally," he said. "They're trying to train a bunch of idiots now."
Phillips said the union's negotiating position is that once an agreement is reached, all striking drivers will be allowed to return to work.
But as the drivers' last paycheck arrived Friday, no negotiations were under way.
"I got three people - my son, my daughter and my wife," said Luis BriseƱo, 42, who has been a driver for the last 11 years. "We gotta pay all expenses. We gotta pay insurance. We gotta pay car. But everybody disagrees with the contract they're giving us right now. It's no good."
(presstelegram.com)