A threatened garbage strike by trash haulers on Tuesday was successful in prodding government officials to a meeting to discuss, among other things, millions of dollars in back payments.
But if issues between trucking companies and the Department of Public Works aren’t resolved in a meeting Thursday, the business owners say they are ready to let trash pile up. The owners of Paradise Waste Management Systems, Dan’s Trucking, Bates Trucking and Fergutrax say the government owes them back payments in the neighborhood of $1 million for work done dating back to 1995.
They are also upset about a decision made by Public Works last week to cut house-to-house trash pick up from two days a week to one. The decision to cut home pick up was made without the haulers’ input and will affect their operations, company owners have said.
But for the time being, the government will have its trash picked up, said Gary Thomas, owner of Paradise Waste Management Systems.
"The whole action was to get . . . them to sit with us. And that has happened," Thomas said. "We’ll hopefully be able to resolve our differences and move forward."
The threat of a strike follows actual job actions in the summer of 1999 and earlier this year. The 1999 work stoppage ended after Lt. Gov. Gerard Luz James II appropriated approximately $420,000 and arranged new hauling contracts. The strike last February saw trash pile up at dumpster sites around St. Croix after more than a week. That stoppage was also resolved after James marshaled the government’s team through negotiations with the haulers.
On Wednesday, James said he was troubled to hear that the problem was resurfacing.
"It really bothers me to see we have to come back again and again to the same point," he said, adding that he will be at the meeting Thursday. "I’m going to find out where the buck stopped and who stopped it."
Dwane Fergus, whose company, Fergutrax, contracts with Public Works to maintain the Anguilla Landfill, said he hasn’t been paid in six or seven months. Still, he said "we’re working. We’re moving garbage."
That goodwill, however, will soon run out, he said.
"We’ll sit down and give them an opportunity," Fergus said. "If nothing comes out of this meeting we’ll have some serious issues."
