Striking sanitation workers decry low pay as company makes millions for Bill Gates

[Eugene]

Source: The Guardian

Striking sanitation workers decry low pay as company makes millions for Bill Gates

Employees of Republic Services say their wages have stagnated while stockholders reap huge benefits

Michael Sainato
Thu 17 Oct 2019 07.01 BST

Sanitation workers for Republic Services, the second-largest sanitation company in the US, are going on strike amid new union contract negotiations with workers in 10 cities around the country.

The company’s largest single shareholder is the billionaire tech mogul and global philanthropist Bill Gates, whose private investment firm Cascade Holdings owns nearly 34% of the company’s stocks, earning over $100m annually in dividends from the shares. Gates’ investment has become a focus for strikers’ complaints.

In 2018, Republic Services made a profit of $2.81bn and estimated a savings of $190m from Trump’s tax cut bill passed in December 2017. In 2018, Republic Services reported returning $1.2bn to shareholders through stock buybacks and dividends.

“I haven’t had a raise since 2004,” said Demetrius Tart, a Republic Services residential driver in Cumming, Georgia, for nearly 15 years. “I’ve been making the same amount of money since day one, no pay increase, while the company is continuing to give dividends to Bill Gates, the executives of the company, stockholders, and leaving the frontline guys hung out to dry.”

Low wages are a key issue in the dispute.

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Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/oct/16/republic-services-strike-bill-gates-sanitation

[MontanaMama]

1. No raise since 2004?

That’s criminal.