As our cousins in Eastlake have pointed out, Capitol Hill and central Seattle won’t be affected if unionized garbage collectors go on strike later this week:
A strike would affect about half the homes in Seattle — those that are served by Waste Management. The company also serves unincorporated King and Snohomish counties, and the cities of Auburn, Bothell, Burien, Federal Way, Kent, Newcastle, Maple Valley, Renton, Issaquah, Kirkland, Redmond, Carnation, Duvall, Mill Creek, Monroe, Arlington, Marysville, Granite Falls and Darrington.
Allied Waste serves about 100,000 homes and 8,000 commercial customers in King County.
A federal mediator has been called in to help with the negotiations Monday through Wednesday.
Unlike the areas listed above, Capitol Hill is served by CleanScapes which you might remember started its 10-year contract to serve our part of the city last spring with a few glitches. CleanScapes is, apparently, free from the union entanglements. A dilemma for those of us with pro-labor leanings? Dad of CHS was on strike for 22 days in summer of 1983. We went fishing a lot. It also freaked little CHS out to have Dad not going to work.
UPDATE: Interesting note from The SunBreak:
CleanScapes should not see interruption of service, because CleanScapes’ contract with Local #174 does not expire until March 2011, said spokesman John Taylor.
