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Fairfield Trash Piles Up As Sanitation Workers Strike

FAIRFIELD (CBS13) - People are talking trash in several local cities. They're really talking trash because their garbage has been piling up, and there's nothing they can do about it.

That's because the garbage collectors are on strike and stopped picking up trash days ago. The strike covers Fairfield and other cities in the Bay Area.

The Wood family home's sidewalk has a trash can trim.

"We got one that's kind of ripe," said Vern Wood of the trash.

It doesn't make for a home sweet home. Trash day came and went but no one showed.

"Since I'm at the end of the court everybody puts there cans in front of my house," said Roxane Wood.

The Solano Sanitation Company advertises they serve the community "Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow."

Only yesterday and today, the garbage trucks sat still.

No one was served because of a sympathy strike for sanitation workers in Youngstown, Ohio.

In a show of solidarity, Republic Services Dump trucks in Solano County sat quiet as workers stayed home, both here, and in cities across the Bay Area.

The Teamsters Union issued a statement saying: "For more than a year now, Republic has been trying to squeeze every last cent out of its workers by cheating them out of pay, ignoring health and safety protections, raising their health care costs, and cutting their retirement benefits."

The labor fight is leaving Fairfield's front yards full of trash, but Vern says he understands.

"I've always been a union member so I'd have to support them," he said.

So, the smell will sit at least another night.

Trash collectors plan to start pickup early Saturday. Republic expects trash pick up to resume as early as 5 a.m.

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