Township waste collection affected by strike.
By: Lea Kahn
The driver of a Waste Management of New Jersey garbage collection truck was injured Tuesday afternoon when a group of six men possibly striking Teamsters union members threw bricks at his truck while he was collecting garbage in the Colonial Lakelands neighborhood, police said.
The driver was struck in the left arm by a brick that was tossed through the open window on the driver’s side of the truck, said Chief of Police Daniel Posluszny. The truck’s windshield also was shattered by a brick in the incident, which occurred at 2:39 p.m. at the intersection of Nathan Hale and Cambridge avenues.
The driver was not seriously injured, but it was decided to halt garbage collection for the rest of the day, Municipal Manager William Guhl said. If such behavior continues, it may become necessary for the township to provide a police escort for the garbage trucks, he said.
Since a strike against the garbage hauler began Monday by Teamsters Local 701, there have been "criminal and cowardly threats and acts of violence" directed toward Waste Management drivers, company spokesman John Wohlrab said in a statement issued by the hauler.
Company officials and police are investigating whether the actions are connected to the Teamsters’ strike, Mr. Wohlrab said in the statement. The company plans to seek "any and all civil and/or criminal sanctions" against the persons responsible for those acts, he stated.
As a result of the strike that began Monday, there was no garbage pickup in Lawrence on Monday, Mr. Guhl said. The township is divided into five garbage collection zones, one for each weekday. There is no garbage collection on the weekend.
The Monday collection zone covers the northern portion of the township. It begins on Green Avenue in the Village of Lawrenceville, and extends north along Route 206 and the west side of Princeton Pike to the Lawrence Township-Princeton Township border. It includes the Landfall, Foxcroft, Society Hill at Lawrenceville, Kingsbrook and Woodfield Estates neighborhoods.
The garbage truck that was involved in Tuesday’s brick-throwing incident was attempting to pick up garbage on the township’s Tuesday garbage collection route, Mr. Guhl said. The Tuesday zone starts at the Lawrence-Trenton border on Spruce Street, and then travels north to Allen Lane. Homes on the east side of Princeton Pike are included in that zone.
Mr. Guhl said it was decided to begin picking up garbage on the Tuesday schedule after drivers were trained to use the specially equipped garbage trucks that serve Lawrence. The trucks have an attachment that picks up the township-issued garbage containers and dumps them into the hopper.
The plan was to begin picking up Tuesday’s garbage as scheduled, and then pick up Monday’s garbage, Mr. Guhl said. The schedule would then follow the Wednesday, Thursday and Friday collection schedule.
But the brick-throwing incident may mean a delay in picking up the garbage as planned, Mr. Guhl said Tuesday afternoon. In fact, only 60 percent of the garbage pickup was completed Tuesday before the workmen were sent home. If not for that incident, all of the garbage on the regular Tuesday route would have been collected, he said.
Mr. Guhl said he expected to begin picking up the remainder of Tuesday’s garbage on Wednesday morning. Once that task was completed, the trucks would be sent to the Monday garbage collection zone. Then, they would be sent out to pick up in the Wednesday, Thursday and Friday zones during the rest of the week, he said.
Noting the uncertainty of settlement talks, Mr. Guhl advised residents to be patient. He also suggested that they should not put out bulk waste, such as furniture, mattresses or carpets, for collection. If the township-issued garbage containers are full, it is permissible to use garbage cans for properly bagged garbage, he said.
Waste Management of New Jersey had conducted contract negotiations with the Teamsters union members for six weeks, including around-the-clock negotiations this past weekend, but the two sides could not reach an agreement, Mr. Wohlrab said in the statement. The union represents Waste Management of New Jersey’s drivers, helpers, mechanics and equipment operators in the company’s Trenton district.
Calls made to the Teamsters Local 701 were not returned prior to publication.
Although a mediator from the New Jersey Department of Labor has been put in charge of the negotiations, no further negotiations are scheduled, according to Waste Management of New Jersey’s statement.

