Trash collection has resumed, but the pushback on Republic Services to provide credits or refunds for missed service continues in communities across the Bay Area.
Earlier this month local Teamster drivers for Republic honored an extended picket line for Teamsters in Stockon who were striking against the company in a fight for better wages and benefits. For two weeks, trash piled up, with collections resuming after July 18 when an announced agreement was reached in Stockton.
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The city reports that catch up efforts have been completed and regular trash collection routes/times have resumed.
But that doesn’t mark an end to battles between the company and customers who say they shouldn’t have to pay for service they didn’t receive during the picket.
In Fairfield, Mayor Catherine Moy has stated that she is “pushing for refunds on garbage bills ” and supervisors from Contra Costa and San Mateo counties have demanded Republic Services offer rate relief for customers.
Suisun City Mayor Alma Hernandez is making a similar push for refunds, backing it up with a community survey of customers.
“I’m gathering feedback from Suisun City residents to share directly with Republic Services,” she told customers on her Facebook page last week. “Your experience matters — especially how the company communicated, handled recovery efforts, and followed up after service resumed.”
On Saturday she updated the effort, saying she shared results direction with Republic Services’ executive team, along with comments provided in the survey.
So far, 42 residential responses were received as of Saturday with 63.4 percent saying they received no correspondence about the service stoppage, 12.2 percent saying they did receive communication in advance of the work stoppage and 24.4 percent they received communications but only after the work stoppage had already begun.
More than half rated the quality of the communications on the inadequate side, with 67.5 percent saying they were dissatisfied with how Republic handled the missed pickup incident in general.
They mayor said her survey effort will close Monday.
In the meantime, she said city leaders have “ ongoing conversations regarding refunds/credits on customer service bills and will be meeting (this) week on post-recovery service updates.”