About 60 percent of the city’s 500 sanitation workers failed to show up for work Wednesday as part of a labor action, leaving a diminished crew to pick up trash.
Sanitation Bureau Director Enrique Zaldivar asked residents to leave out their trash bins until the end of the day as the remaining drivers may need until about 7 p.m. to complete trash pick-up.
He said it was unclear how long the job action would last.
SEIU Local 721, the union representing the trash truck drivers, is in the middle of labor negotiations with city management.
Union spokeswoman Coral Itzcalli told City News Service Tuesday that the union had not called for the work stoppage, saying in an email that “SEIU Local 721 is not condoning any action.”
Scott Mann, a spokesman for the Coalition of L.A. City Unions, which bargains on behalf of the union, said today he is not “not aware of any action,” and if there was, “it’s not Coalition related.”
Sanitation Bureau officials said they intend to collect black solid waste bins today as scheduled and other bins — those that take recyclables and green waste — on Saturday.
The bureau’s contingency plans have been worked out to enable the bureau “to continue our operations with minimal inconvenience” today, according to a spokesman for the bureau.
