‘Overworked and underpaid’: Durham sanitation workers call for pay raises
Durham sanitation workers stopped work Wednesday as they called on the city to raise their pay.
“As essential workers, we’re overworked and we’re underpaid, of course,” Chris Benjamin, a longtime employee and solid waste truck driver, told the City Council on Tuesday night.
The next morning, department workers refused to load their trucks, demanding city leaders come speak with them at the Solid Waste Operations Facility north of downtown. The city manager and deputy spent several hours there.
“There should be over 40 trucks on the road right now gathering trash and recycling. As far as I know, we’re all standing in solidarity together, and I don’t think any trucks went out,” Benjamin said Wednesday morning.
Their demands include:
- An immediate $5,000 bonus
- Pay raises
- Better equipment
More than three dozen workers from the Solid Waste Management Department attended the City Council meeting, the night after American workers celebrated Labor Day. Most wore their bright yellow uniforms.
The city’s website has a continuous job posting for a solid waste technician that lists pay between $40,099 and $61,720 annually. That’s about $19 to $30 an hour.
“I feel we should start paying our drivers at least $35 an hour,” Benjamin said. “Because we go over and beyond every day.”
‘Effectively an 8% pay cut’
Dante Strobino is a representative of UE Local 150, the N.C. Public Service Workers Union, which collected signatures from more than 300 workers.
“Increasingly, city workers are forced to work second jobs and still are not able to afford to rent or own a house inside Durham city limits, the city that they help maintain,” Strobino said in a news release.
All city workers got at least a 2% pay bump in July. Sanitation workers got about a 6% to 8% increase but argue that’s not enough to make ends meet.
“Since 2019, wages have gone up 15%, but inflation and cost-of-living has gone up 23%. Effectively an 8% pay cut,” the release said.
Council member DeDreana Freeman said the demands were entirely reasonable and council member Leonardo Williams said they were committed to reaching an agreement.
“It’s clear that labor is on the rise again in this country, and that’s a good thing,” added council member Javiera Caballero.
The city is searching for a new solid waste director after hiring a man this summer who lied about his experience and was fired just three weeks in.
This story was originally published September 6, 2023 at 5:30 AM.
