Unions trying to organize at recycler
Company officials say dismissals not related
to unionizing effort
JERRY WOLKOWITZ Teamsters Local 825 and Local 945 borrowed this giant inflatable rat from Schneider, Goldberger, Cohen, Finn, Solomon, Leder & Montalbano of Kenilworth, the legal counsel of Local 945, for their protest last week. The rat is no longer on the company site because the pickets were told they needed a permit from the borough to display it.
TINTON FALLS — Under the red eyes of a 20-foot-tall rat, pickets are walking a line in front of Mazza and Sons Demolition, Shafto Road.
The pickets — four fired employees, sympathetic coworkers and members of Teamsters Local 945 and Local 825 of the International Union of Operating Engi-neers — have been walking in front of the business since April 24 following the filing of an unfair labor practices charge against the company.
The pickets are hoping to get the fired employees reinstated and win recognition of the workers’ right to be represented by a union without fear of discharge, according to Paul Montalbano, an attorney with Schneider, Goldberger, Cohen, Finn, Solomon, Leder & Montalbano of Kenilworth, the legal counsel to Local 945.
The four workers, Carlos Grine of Long Branch, Wilbur Cooper of Englishtown, Joseph Aochoa of Atlantic City, and Steve Hoffman of Howell, were dismissed soon after they began wearing the buttons of the two unions while on the job, Montalbano said.
Carlos Grine of Long Branch (l) and Wilbur Cooper of Englishtown picket outside Mazza and Sons Demolition, Shafto Road, Tinton Falls. The former employees of the business argue that their desire to unionize cost them their jobs.
"When the fellows started wearing union buttons, the first thing the employer did was interrogate them and discharge them," according to Montalbano.
Dominick Mazza, president of the company, said the men were laid off not because of union activity, but because business has been slow. Mazza and Sons hauls waste from construction sites and recycles that waste and refuse from other haulers.
Mazza said he usually employs around 30 workers, not including office and administrative personnel, but when taking on large jobs, the number of employees can rise as high as 70. If jobs require union labor, Mazza said, he gets the additional workers through the unions.
Mazza said the unions have been pushing to organize his labor force since he was approved for a transfer station license at his location. The license allows Mazza to accept unsorted construction material from demolition sites at its facility. It will then sort the components, removing recyclable material and sending the remaining waste to a landfill.
Union officials said the workers were trying to organize to win better wages, improve their benefits and bring greater equity to the workforce. They did note that the transfer station license will greatly increase the income of the company.
According to Darren Scolar of Brick, who works at Mazza and Sons but has not crossed the picket line since the job action began, workers at the business are not compensated equally.
"When they laid off my partner (Hoffman), it felt wrong," Scolar said of his reason for joining the picket line.
He said there are already two union machine operators on Mazza’s staff, and shortly after Hoffman left the work yard, a laborer was placed in his machine to do the work he had been doing.
Mazza said he pays wages comparable to those throughout the industry, from $10 to $35 per hour, and pays about half of employees’ health-care costs.
Scolar said health insurance was one area where workers were not being treated equitably. He said some employees were getting almost the entire cost of their benefits covered, while others were not getting any of their costs covered.
The recently dismissed workers have various tenures with the company. Cooper worked at Mazza for about 14 years, according to Scolar. Hoffman has worked for the company for about three years, and Grine has been employed there on and off over the last few years. Aochoa had been on the job for about six weeks, according to Scolar.
So far the dispute has seen relatively little strife, though restraining orders have been issued by state Superior Court Judge Clarkson S. Fisher Jr., sitting in Freehold.
Fisher enjoined the workers from blocking the two gates that lead into the company’s site and limiting the number of pickets at each gate to six.
Employees and others entering the site have been ordered not to try to use their cars to intimidate the workers and to drive no faster than 10 mph when entering the Mazza property.
As of this week, the giant inflatable rat the pickets used in their protest is no longer at the company site. The borough of Tinton Falls informed the protesters that they would need a permit from the borough before they could display the rat. The rat was on loan from Schneider, Goldberger, Cohen, Finn, Solomon, Leder & Montalbano.