Drivers and helpers for Shred-it in Trenton went on strike Monday to protest unfair working conditions and to demand the company meet with Teamsters Local 469 and bargain a contract in good faith.
“This company continues to trample on the workers’ rights,” Cassiba Joseph, a Shred-it driver who helped launch and lead the unionization effort, said in a prepared statement. “We decided that enough was enough. We were fed up. We felt we had no choice but to strike.”
Since electing the Teamsters Local 469 in Hazlet as their bargaining representative in April 2021, workers have been fighting for a union contract that protects workers’ rights and secures fair wages. Meanwhile, the company has continued to stall at the bargaining table in hopes that the workers will lose faith in the union.
“The company would rather spend money on union-busting attorneys than on investing in their workforce — the hardworking essential workers who have continued to earn a profit for the company working on the frontlines of a global pandemic in hospital and other medical settings,” said Chuck Stiles, director of the Teamsters Solid Waste and Recycling Division. “This has been Shred-it and Stericycle’s game plan for dealing with the unions across the country. Workers at other Stericycle and Shred-it locations, at Toledo, Youngstown, Providence and New York have had enough of the games, too, and have also taken labor actions to demand a fair contract. Teamsters are united in this fight and won’t back down until justice is won.”
Shred-it, a wholly owned subsidiary of Stericycle Inc., was not available for comment.
