Sanipac workers ratify new contract.

Byline: Jim Murez The Register-Guard

CORRECTION (ran 8/13/2005): Union members of Sanipac had been paying $272 monthly for health care insurance. The amount was incorrect in a Friday story on Page C3 about the union's vote to ratify a four-year contract with Sanipac.

Members of the union representing mechanics and garbage truck drivers at Sanipac ratified on Thursday night the tentative agreement reached in a marathon negotiation session last week.

The contract passed by a majority of union members is a four-year deal that includes full insurance coverage for medical, dental and vision over the length of the contract, as well as wage and pension increases, said Stefan Ostrach, union representative of Teamsters Local 206.

He added that there was a "significant percentage of no votes."

Ninety-five of the 101 members eligible to vote turned out for Thursday's meeting at the union's hall.

The key component of the negotiations had been health care benefits, Ostrach said. Union members had been paying $272 annually for coverage. Under the new contract, Sanipac will pick up the full cost, but there is a "step down in the level of coverage," Ostrach said.

The deal "means members will have a lot more money to spend in the community or save for the future," Ostrach said.

Negotiating teams from the union and Sanipac met for nearly 10 hours last Friday before reaching a tentative agreement and avoiding a disruption in garbage collection.

Sanipac controls about 70 percent of the Eugene commercial garbage market and about 80 percent of the residential market. It holds the exclusive trash collection franchise in Springfield.

Union members unanimously voted July 21 to give their leaders the authority to call a strike after July 31.

A four-year labor agreement between the union and the company expired July 1, but both sides had agreed to extend the contract to the end of July.

Most garbage and recycling truck drivers at Sanipac earn $17 per hour plus an additional $2 per hour that goes to their pension funds.