MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) - The union representing Memphis sanitation workers has agreed that the city can move to automated garbage trucks.
The Commercial Appeal reports that in 2005, the city and the union agreed not to modernize the city's garbage trucks, which require two or three workers. That move saved jobs but cost taxpayers millions of dollars.
Chad Johnson is the executive director of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 1733.
He said he hopes the more efficient trucks will allow the city to bring trash collection routes that have been outsourced back under municipal control.
The union first earned recognition from the city in 1968, shortly after the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated while visiting Memphis to support a sanitation workers' strike.
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Information from: The Commercial Appeal,
http://www.commercialappeal.com
