Meadow Carting and workers strike deal; pickup to resume

Stephen Romano

Westbury-based Meadow Carting and more than 65 employees struck a deal for a new contract on Wednesday, ending a three-day strike that disrupted garbage collection across the North Shore.

The end of the strike was confirmed by an official from the National Organization of Industrial Trade Unions, which represents the workers.

The details of the agreement are not known at the time.

Gerard Jones, president of the National Organization of Industrial Trade Unions, who on Monday said the workers were seeking $1 more per hour and for Meadow to pay a larger portion for health benefits, could not immediately be reached for comment.

Anthony E. Core, a lawyer representing Meadow, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The workers began picketing Meadow’s main building at 581 Dickens St. in Westbury on Monday, after they rejected the company’s proposed contract. The last contract expired on Friday.

Meadow picks up garbage in Great Neck and New Cassel under a contract with the Town of North Hempstead, but some villages within the town have their own contracts with the carting company.

“Meadow Carting (orange garbage trucks), which collects garbage for the town’s garbage districts and several of the town’s incorporated villages and independent garbage districts, has settled the work stoppage by some of its workforce,” a town statement said. “Over the course of the next three days April 6, 7 and 8 Meadow Carting will be collecting garbage until it is all removed, so please leave your garbage out during this time.”

Four Port Washington villages, Manorhaven, Baxter Estates, Flower Hill and Port Washington North, also use Meadow for trash pickup.

Meadow also picks up garbage in North Hills, Munsey Park, Plandome, Great Neck Estates, Lake Success, Russell Gardens and Saddle Rock, as well as other municipalities in Nassau County.

Marco Garcia, a Meadow employee for 11 years, said on Tuesday that workers haven’t received a raise in nine years.

“We’re out here to try and get better benefits and better pay,” he said Tuesday.

Jones would not disclose how much workers earn, but some employees said they take home around $550 a week.

To remedy the collection disruptions in municipalities across the North Shore, Meadow hired nonunion workers to continue garbage pickup, village officials and workers said.

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