Leaders of the Greater Boston communities where trash is piling up say they are feeling the financial burden of the ongoing sanitation worker strike, threatening to press fines against Republic Services.
Striking members of Teamsters Local 25 and the waste management giant are not negotiating this weekend, pushing off next conversations until Tuesday after the sides failed to settle on an agreement on Friday.
As municipal leaders say their concerns grow by the day amid the dispute, they are demanding that Republic Services “provide accurate and updated timelines and service expectations” and “expand driver resources and logistical support to guarantee the daily completion of all trash and recycling routes.”
Their demands and concerns are outlined in a letter that they sent to the company on Friday, while striking workers and Republic Services accused each other of not taking their proposals seriously.
Advertisement
Officials from Gloucester, Danvers, Beverly, Canton, Ipswich, Lynnfield, Malden, Manchester-by-the-Sea, North Reading, Peabody, Swampscott, Wakefield, Watertown all signed onto the letter.
“Our communities are already bearing the cost of this disruption, both in personnel and material resources, as we work to mitigate the impacts of the service interruption and delay in full service resumption,” the letter states. “It is entirely reasonable – and necessary – for municipalities to take steps to secure alternative services that protect public health and maintain basic standards of cleanliness and safety.”
“We fully intend to seek appropriate compensation for the consequential damages and expenses incurred as a direct result of Republic Services’ failure to meet its obligations,” the officials added.
They highlighted that they are tracking the costs, including labor and emergency response efforts, to “determine the full extent of the financial burden.”
In an update on Saturday, Local 25 President Tom Mari stated that the union met with Republic Services at the request of a federal mediator on Friday, with the unsuccessful negotiation session ending after 9.5 hours.
Advertisement
Mari added that the union wanted to continue bargaining over the weekend.
“I feel bad for the citizens in the cities and towns serviced by Republic,” he stated. “We have no idea why Republic refused to meet for another three days, but we will show up Tuesday morning ready to agree to a contract that brings Republic’s employees up to the standards we’ve established for the employees of Capitol and Boston Carting.”
Republic Services says its proposed nearly 16% immediate wage increase and roughly 43% pay increase over five years, offered on Friday, “outpaces competitors.” According to the company, payroll data shows that almost half of the Boston regional union members already earn six-figure salaries annually.
The company also claims the union is attempting to force workers out of the “zero-premium healthcare plan” offered by Republic and into the “Teamsters’ health and welfare plan, which offers no significant benefit at a substantially higher cost.”
The sides have met for 11 days, twice with a federal mediator, who requested mediation to continue on Tuesday, according to Republic Services.
Advertisement
“When a wage proposal this significant is combined with zero-premium healthcare and generous retirement contributions,” the company stated in an update Friday night, “there is no question who is responsible for this ongoing strike: Teamsters Local 25 and its president Tom Mari.
“It is time for the Teamsters to get serious about negotiations so our employees can return to work,” the company added.
Greater Boston is not the only region in the country dealing with heaping trash piles.
Mari has said roughly 4,000 Teamsters are refusing to report to work nationally until Republic Services “bargains fair and equitable contracts.”
Dozens of state lawmakers are also pressuring Republic Services to settle on a contract with Teamsters Local 25, which represents more than 400 members employed by the company.
Advertisement
“As legislators, we are disappointed to learn that despite multiple meetings, Republic Services has failed to meet basic community standards,” they stated in a letter to the company on Friday.
Beverly Mayor Mike Cahill said in a memo to residents in his North Shore city that officials there had to direct Republic Services to a “number of streets they had repeatedly missed,” noting “we have seen good results, particularly in the downtown.”
The company is also running a day behind schedule, the mayor added.
“I, together with Mayors and Town Administrators from the other 13 communities impacted by this labor dispute between Republic and their drivers and collectors unions, are working together and pushing for Republic to get more drivers into our communities,” Cahill said, “because Republic is not fulfilling their contracts with any of our fourteen cities and towns or with their many commercial customers in our communities.”
Leaders from the affected communities told Republic Services in their letter that they are dealing with more than just the mounting financial burden, as they “deploy emergency responses, address overflow issues, and fill service gaps.”
Advertisement
“At the same time,” they added, “environmental conditions are deteriorating, with uncollected trash affecting neighborhoods, parks, and waterways. Public health concerns are escalating, particularly as restaurants struggle without a viable waste solution during the peak of their busy season.”
It’s been a stormy start to the weekend, and we’re not even close to done just yet!
As a storm moves south through New England, we’ll have more rain, wind and March-like temperatures. Let’s start with the timing and the rain. Showers and some heavy rain will come in waves from north to south, and leave in the same direction. That means, the further north you live, the earlier you saw the rain this morning, but the sooner you’ll see the rain leave this afternoon.
In fact, folks in areas like Worcester County could even see some sunshine before sunset.
On the flip side, if you’re on the South Shore, South Coast, Cape & Islands, the rain takes longer to reach you, but won’t be gone until 3-5 PM or so, and the clouds will take longer to break as well.
Now for the wind. We’ve already seen gusts in the 20s, 30s & 40s. But with the strength of this storm, we could see more up to 55 mph for most of the coast, and 65 mph for the Cape and Nantucket.
For that reason, we have a Wind Advisory and a High Wind Warning until 8 PM this evening. We could even see a few power outages because with the potential of winds blowing weak tree limbs onto power lines.
Finally, the chill. Temperatures early this morning were largely in the low to mid 50s. Not the worst start for this time of year.
But as the cold air associated with this storm kicks in, temperatures go down instead of up. We’ll be in the 40s for most of the afternoon.
If there’s a bright side to this forecast, it’s that the storm is gone and clouds clear in time for us to see the only blue moon of 2026! It will rise tonight, and peak illumination will be at 4:45 AM tomorrow morning! It will be a micromoon, meaning it’ll look smaller than normal, as the moon is at or near apogee, its farthest point in orbit from the earth.
On the note of tomorrow morning… it’ll be beautiful! It’ll be a cold start with temps in the 40s. However, we’ll have some beautiful sunshine as well, and by the afternoon, temperatures will reach the mid to upper 60s and low 70s– not far from normal! That said, clouds increase in the afternoon and we’re keeping an eye out for a few spotty showers as well.
We’ll keep a few showers around on Monday, though they’ll stay spotty. Temperatures will be cooler as a front comes through with highs in the low 60s. We’ll keep a shower around on Tuesday, with a mix of clouds and sun and a shower or two remaining.
The weather finally takes a turn on Wednesday! We’ll be mostly to partly sunny, and the chance of a shower is incredibly slim. Highs will be in the upper 60s. Thursday is mostly sunny and even warmer, with highs in the mid to upper 70s!
Join our Newsletter for the latest news right to your inbox
It’s going to be a little while longer before Roman Anthony returns to action.
The Red Sox outfielder has suffered another setback in his recovery from a sprained right hand and will be shut down from swinging for a couple of days.
Red Sox interim manager Chad Tracy told reporters in Cleveland that Anthony tried hitting off a tee Thursday for the first time since suffering his injury on May 4, but that he found doing so to be painful.
“He hit off the tee (yesterday) and had some discomfort, so we’re going to slow play it,” Tracy said, per MLB.com’s Henry Palattella. “It’s going to be day-to-day, or even the better way is ‘action-to-action.’ (We’re going to be asking), ‘What did he do today, is that uncomfortable and do we have to wait?’ ”
Advertisement
Originally thought to be a minor issue that might not even require a stint on the injured list, Anthony has now missed 21 games and likely won’t be back until early-to-mid June.
The recovery process has also been halting. Anthony has continued doing most other baseball activities, including running and throwing, but it wasn’t until earlier this week that he could swing a bat free of discomfort.
Once he was able to comfortably take dry swings — or swing a bat without hitting the ball — the next step was hitting off a tee. Now he’ll be given a couple more days to heal and likely won’t try again until the Red Sox return home from Cleveland and are back at Fenway Park on Tuesday following Monday’s off day.
Tracy acknowledged that the recovery hasn’t gone as smoothly as expected, but emphasized that isn’t because of anything Anthony’s done wrong.
“That’s not Roman’s fault, it’s not anyone’s fault,” Tracy said. “It’s just he got hurt, and it’s a nagging injury on a hand when he’s trying to hit.”
Advertisement
Speaking to Rob Bradford on the Baseball Isn’t Boring podcast prior to Thursday’s game against the Atlanta Braves, Anthony clarified the exact nature of his injury, which was officially announced by the team as a right wrist sprain. Anthony said he has a partially torn ring finger ligament, specifically his ring finger CMC (carpometacarpal).
The sprain versus torn verbiage has generated some confusion among fans, though medically there isn’t a meaningful distinction between the two.
“I know stuff came out yesterday about tear versus sprain versus strain and all these different things, and I don’t know what to say other than any of those are a tear,” Tracy said. “You strain a hamstring and that’s a partial tear; fibers let go a little bit and they need to heal.
“I don’t think anything is portrayed differently or wrongly. If a guy strains his hamstring, I won’t come out here and say he tore his hamstring. That’s not how that works.”
Prior to suffering his injury, Anthony was batting .229 with one home run and a .675 OPS through his first 30 games this season.
Surprise: Another weekend and there’s more rain on the way. It’s bad enough we’ve had to post a First Alert.
For now, we’ll watch as clouds thicken today. We’ll squeeze out some drops later this afternoon and evening.
A weather maker is winding up in Canada, wrapping in cold air. All of that is going to dive down to New England.
We’re in the thick of it tomorrow. Rain will be coming at us in bursts with some dry time in between. Winds will likely push past 50 mph in Boston.
Advertisement
Those winds will eat away at temperatures; with wind chills barely above freezing. And no – not just in the morning – but the afternoon, too!
It’s so cold there’s the threat of snow as that rain bumps into colder air over the Berkshires, Worcester Hills and southern New Hampshire right up to Mount Washington.
The snow isn’t going to pile up but just know there could be some flakes flying over our highest hills.
The blue on our Futurecast map marks the spots where snow could mix with rain.
Rain spins out by Saturday evening but not before dumping about half an inch over Boston.
We’ll try to salvage the rest of the weekend with temperatures in the upper 60s by Sunday. Still, there’s the threat of bits and pieces of rain.
By the way, this isn’t any weekend, it’s the last weekend of spring. Meteorological summer starts on June 1.
The first day of summer remains drab and dreary with more rain chances and temperatures in the low 60 on Monday.
