Allied Waste Systems, Republic Services Charged Full Rates During Holiday Season Worker Strike, Class Action Says

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Allied Waste Systems and Republic Services face a proposed class action wherein a San Diego resident alleges the companies wrongfully continued to bill consumers for trash and recycling services amid a worker strike during the 2021 holiday season. 

The 12-page breach-of-contract case says that even though the companies’ unionized employees went on strike on December 17, 2021 and thereafter ceased providing waste removal services well into the new year, the plaintiff and other residents in the San Diego and Chula Vista, California areas were nevertheless charged by Allied and Republic as their trash and recycling continued to pile up. 

According to the lawsuit, the garbage and recycling build-up, exacerbated due to the holiday season, had grown so bad that many homeowners retained the services of third parties to “minimize the hazards of the developing trash pile up.” Per media reports, the San Diego County garbage strike came to an end on January 17, 2022, when union workers, represented by Teamsters Local 542, voted 138 to 70 to accept a deal offered by Republic Services. 

As the complaint tells it, the fees proposed class members were charged while no trash and recycling services were being offered have not been prorated in any way by the defendants, and residents, at the time of the suit’s filing, have not been refunded or credited by either Allied or Republic. 

“Plaintiff and the Class did not consent to Defendants’ charging of their debit and credit cards for services that Defendants did not perform,” the suit contends. “Defendants breached the agreements with Plaintiff and the Class by accepting payment for services that were not provided, and that Defendants knew they could not perform due to a labor strike and continued to charge for services not being provided for months.”

Once the strike commenced, the suit says, San Diego sent correspondence to the defendants to inquire about when services would resume. The correspondence stated that, per the agreement between the city and companies, “labor unrest … is not an excuse for non-performance,” and that San Diego expected the companies to continue providing weekly services. 

The complaint stresses that the halting of trash and recycling services during the holidays was especially troubling given the higher-than-usual amounts of waste produced during the season. The case paints a less-than-rosy picture of what it was allegedly like for San Diego County residents amid the garbage strike: 

“Waste continued to pile up over the weeks with no end in sight. Many customers did not know what to do with their waste and recycling that continued to pile up. Small apartments, condos, homes, businesses had no other choice but to lay their garbage against the sides and front walls of their homes and businesses, or next to dumpsters all which has been documented in local news reports and social media. Waste included biodegradable components of food and other materials, which attracted rats and cockroaches. The buildup of waste also caused horrible smells to develop which affected the quiet and enjoyment of communities.”

The lawsuit looks to represent all San Diego County residents who were charged fees for services during the period in which Allied Waste Systems and Republic Services provided no services to residential customers between December 2021 and January 2022.

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