Teach-in this weekend about Bill Gates' burning, radioactive landfill in Missouri

There's only one place in the country where a landfill fire smolders next to a nuclear dump site, and more than a thousand Teamster families live near it.

Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates is the dominant shareholder in Republic Services Inc., the company that owns the West Lake Landfill burning in Bridgeton, Mo.

The Teamsters Union along with other groups will hold a public teach-in on Saturday about the threats of the West Lake Landfill Superfund site in Bridgeton. They will demand institutional support for health and safety protections from Republic Services, Bill and Melinda Gates, elected officials and the Environmental Protection Agency..

The teach-in will spread awareness of the environmental catastrophe at the West Lake Landfill. Discussions will be held on how to best keep area residents safe from the underground fire and uncontained buried nuclear wastes.

Lois Gibbs will be there as well. She is a mom who helped organize her community to fight for the health and wellness of their children after government officials allowed a school to be built on top of a toxic waste site in Love Canal, N.Y. Ms. Gibbs will be in St. Louis to discuss her journey from seeking the American dream to becoming the founder and executive director of the Center for Health, Environment & Justice.

Sponsors of Saturday’s event include the Teamsters, Just Moms STL, the Missouri Coalition for the Environment, Franciscan Sisters of Mary and other supporting organizations.

Read more about the teach-in here. It's in Maryland Heights, Mo., on Oct. 4, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.

If you're interested in attending, click here. If you can't make the teach-in, you can sign a petition asking Bill Gates to put out the fire and evacuate families living near the dangerous landfill. Just click here.

Tell Bill Gates to tell Republic Services to put out the landfill fire near the nuclear dump

Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates is the dominant shareholder of Republic Services, which owns a burning landfill near a nuclear dump.

Gates has the power to convince Republic Services to evacuate families living next to a burning landfill.

The landfill is in the St. Louis suburb of Bridgeton, Mo. As the St. Louis Post-Dispatch recently reported,

Buying Allied Waste in 2008 brought Republic Services to the St. Louis area. The acquisition also made it the owner of an infamous landfill...an already-closed dump where a smoldering mass of underground waste was detected in December 2010... 

What the company calls a “smoldering event” triggered by a chemical reaction has produced noxious odors that blanketed nearby communities and raised the ire of residents for more than two years. That anger has gotten the attention of state and federal regulators, politicians, lawyers and national environmental figures. 

Grass-roots citizens groups have formed as the landfill burned, and it has become a cause célèbre for environmental groups worried the smoldering could reach nuclear waste illegally dumped 40 years ago in the adjacent West Lake Landfill. Some residents have filed lawsuits, others want buyouts, and federal regulators have reconsidered a plan to cap the radioactive waste. 

Even the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, which represents about 9,000 of Republic’s workers and has had a contentious relationship with the company over the years, joined the chorus calling for buyouts and removal of the waste.

Please ask Bill Gates to make Republic Services put out the fire and evacuate the families nearby by signing the petition here.

State health investigators found a high rate of brain and nervous system cancers among children 17 and younger in the area near the landfill, in a report just released. There were seven such cancers in that age group compared to an expected 2.5 cases..

Parents of children at Rose Acres Elementary school believe the number of cancers among students and staff members has recently increased, and have asked the health department for a separate study at the school.

Near the burning landfill and nuclear dump is a family with four little girls. The youngest is in first grade today and the oldest is no longer with us. After a series of test her parents were told that their little girl had a rare type of brain cancer—a tumor.  They did everything medically possible to save their child but in the end, four years after she was diagnosed, she died.

Her mother never stopped looking for the cause of the cancer. As she investigated what was in the air outside her window,  she believed she found the cause of her daughter's death. Not only was the air smelly, but it contained cancer-causing chemicals like benzene and likely radioactive dust.

Today, she’s very frightened for the health of her other three girls.

Bill Gates can help protect this family and others living in the community. Please ask Bill Gates to make Republic Services clean up the dump site and evacuate the families nearby by signing the petition here.

Republic, Teamsters continue talks as Youngstown, McDonough strikes suspended

Local 377 extended picket lines all over the country.

Teamsters are sitting down at the bargaining table with Republic Services/Allied Waste as 23 Youngstown workers return to the job after four weeks on strike at the Carbon Limestone Landfill. Forty more drivers, helpers and mechanics at Republic/Allied in McDonough, Ga., also suspended their strike.

The strikers had extended their picket lines across the U.S. over the past weeks. In an unprecedented show of solidarity, thousands of Teamsters honored picket lines in 25 cities across the Midwest and from Georgia to Washington and California.

While members of Local 377 in Youngstown and Local 728 in McDonough, Ga., are back to work, Republic/Allied workers in Memphis are still on strike.

Trash tycoon Bill Gates, who owns about 26 percent of Republic, continues to appear disinterested in his company's labor and environmental misdeeds. He was busy telling South Korean President Park Geun-Hye what to do. (Let's hope she doesn't listen.)

According to today's Teamster press release, John Overly, a worker at the Youngstown landfill, explained:

We never wanted to go on strike, but Republic’s behavior has been so abusive we had no choice. As we extended picket lines to other cities, the workers there told us of very similar patterns of intimidation and harassment at their facilities. 

We care about the communities we live and work in. We don’t like seeing the trash piling up and our neighbors being upset at the filth. That’s why we’re going back to work – for now – because we really want to clean up our neighborhoods. We are hoping Republic will be willing to make right all the wrongs they have done to us and to workers and communities all over the country.

Republic Services had established a pattern of behavior that went beyond Youngstown, said Robert Morales, director of the Teamsters Solid Waste, Recycling and Related Industries Division.

These strikes have been about this company breaking the law. Republic’s tactics of intimidation and law-breaking are not limited to Youngstown, Ohio – they are occurring in many other cities and that pattern of behavior goes back years. If the company won’t fix its illegal actions and continues to refuse to treat its workers with respect, then I can promise you the Teamsters will respond, and we will respond hard.

Ken Hall, Teamsters general secretary-treasurer, said there are many issues that need to be addressed:

I’ve urged the company to come back to the table over the next two to three weeks and resolve all outstanding issues, including the pension. If the company wants to back up its words that its true objective is looking out for the best interests of its employees, rather than slashing benefits, then the company must negotiate in good faith with Teamsters Local Unions. 

Out of respect for their communities and the customers they serve, our members chose to suspend the strike – I hope their act of good faith is matched by Republic’s good faith at the bargaining table.

Whoa! Missouri AG sues over Bill Gates' explosive radioactive landfill

It burns. It stinks. It explodes. It's radioactive. Thank you,
Republic Services. 

Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster today sued Republic Services over its burning, exploding, radioactive landfill near St. Louis.

Microsoft co-founder and trash tycoon Bill Gates owns about 26 percent of the waste company, by far the largest shareholder.

Here's what the attorney general said today about the lawsuit:

Attorney General Chris Koster today filed a lawsuit alleging that Republic Services, Inc., owner of the Bridgeton Landfill in St. Louis County, has violated a number of Missouri’s environmental laws in its operation of the landfill. Since January 2013, an underground landfill fire at the Bridgeton facility has intensified, causing violations of Missouri’s air, hazardous waste, solid waste and clean water laws. 

"The nearby residents, schools, senior care facilities and a local hospital all have dealt with terrible, ongoing odor problems from the Bridgeton Landfill that have impacted their ability to go about normal activities," Koster said. 

"For St. Louisans who have not been directly exposed to the site, it is difficult to describe the effects this situation is having on local neighborhoods and businesses. While we have been assured by Republic Services that they have developed a remediation plan and are implementing that plan as expeditiously as possible, it is important that we ensure the corporation’s promises are binding and enforceable in a court of law," Koster added. 

Koster said that, in addition to addressing the odor problems and correcting the environmental violations, his lawsuit seeks to provide remedies to help local residents and businesses deal with the ongoing effects of the burning waste. The lawsuit also seeks to ensure that Republic, rather than taxpayers, pays for the costs of experts hired by the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) to perform ongoing, intensive environmental testing. Koster noted that DNR has committed to share the experts’ analysis and test results with the public as quickly as possible.

Republic abuses its workers as much as it abuses the environment. Read more at www.pickupthegarbage.com.

And go get 'em, Koster.

Big turnout today at briefing on Bill Gates' exploding nuclear landfill

Today's briefing. Outside, they can smell the stench. 

Bill Gates' exploding nuclear landfill is right now stinking up a well-attended briefing in St. Louis ... about the exploding nuclear landfill.

Trash titan Bill Gates owns about one-fourth of Republic Services, which owns the landfill in Bridgeton, Mo. Today, experts are briefing public officials at Machinists' Hall about the health and safety risks posed by the landfill. Of special concern is the presence of untreated nuclear weapons wastes at the site.

The stench can be smelled right outside the Hall. It's one of the reasons the landfill has been in the news lately, along with its expanding underground fire, a recent explosion and the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) announcement this week that it has detected radiation.

According to a press statement from the Missouri Coalition for the Environment, the Teamsters and Jobs with Justice:

Radioactive wastes dumped at the West Lake Landfill in 1973 sit in the Missouri River floodplain with no protective barriers between the wastes and the groundwater. The site is located 8 river miles upstream from where drinking water is pulled for more than 300,000 North St. Louis County residents.  

Bob Criss, director of the Stable Isotope Laboratory at Washington University in St. Louis and a Missouri River expert, said it's inexcusable that so little is known about the radioactive waste after 30 years.

Few things are as absurd as dumping almost 9,000 tons of waste containing radionuclides, in an unlined landfill, in a floodplain, in a major metropolitan area.

Peter Anderson, executive director of the Center for a Competitive Waste Industry, raised the possibility of a dirty-bomb-like explosion. He called Republic's track record "deplorable."

...there is a very real prospect that lethal material will be released into the atmosphere and groundwater.  

Moreover, in view of recent methane explosions and the fact that pools of methane gas seem to lie in proximity to jet fuels and other accelerants, there is the non-trivial possibility of a dirty bomb scenario. 

Anderson said public officials should hire experts to test the landfill and take charge of fixing its problems. Republic should pay for those fixes, he said.

Marvin Kropp, president of Teamsters Joint Council 13, said Teamsters and their families work at and live around the Bridgeton landfill, and Teamsters around the country work for Republic.

Our experience is that Republic can’t be trusted – it is hurting working families and communities across the country.  We want to see them protected.

And how's this for an irony alert: Gates' foundation aims to eradicate polio around the world ... through improved sanitation.

EPA says Bill Gates' exploding landfill is radioactive

The EPA has discovered radioactivity in the Missouri landfill that exploded last month, but won't say how much.

The landfill, which is on fire, is owned by Republic Services. Sanitation baron Bill Gates is by far Republic's  largest shareholder, owning about 25 percent of the company. 

KMOV reported on Monday that an EPA airplane flying over the landfill near St. Louis detected radiation. Not surprising, since radioactive waste was buried in the site.

Local residents are concerned about foul odors emitted by the landfill. They're also worried about a recent explosion, which was caused by work crews. Only the company didn't want to call it an explosion, preferring "void space with pressurized gas" or "a violent forceful event."

The exploding radioactive landfill tends to undermine Gates' attempt to be seen as "benevolent." Ellie Mae O'Hagan raised questions about his stated objective of eradicating polio in a Guardian column:

Given that polio is primarily transmitted via the gruesome faecal-oral method, one might assume that Gates is committed to excellent standards of sanitation in every corner of the globe. One might also assume, therefore, that Gates also ensures the waste management company he has invested in, Republic Services makes excellent sanitation the only priority of its operation – more important than making profits. 

Alas, if you did make these assumptions about Bill Gates, you would be wrong. For as he jets off around the world to promote polio vaccinations and "environmentally friendly toilet seats", Republic Services is locking out its workers as part of an industrial dispute, a practice which may jeopardise the sanitation of American communities. According to the Teamsters union, which represents the employees of Republic Services, workers have been subject to lockouts for protesting against the destruction of already modest pensions, unpaid overtime, and illegally abandoning contracts agreed upon with the union. In 2012, Republic Services' practice of locking out protesting workers led to stoppages in at least 13 American cities. Teamsters has called on Gates to use his wealth and influence – that same wealth and influence he's planning to use to eradicate polio – to put an end to this dispute. So far Bill Gates has not responded. 

Read more about Republic here at www.pickupthegarbage.com.

Bill Gates' landfill explodes near radioactive waste in Missouri

Bill Gates, co-founder of Microsoft, is now the biggest shareholder in Republic Services, which operates an exploding landfill near a nuclear waste site.

Funny thing is they don't want to call it an explosion. It's being called a "void space with pressurized gas." Or "a violent forceful event."

The violent forceful event follows months of complaints by residents who live near Bridgeton Landfill. They were smelling foul odors that came from the landfill's underground fire. KMOV reports:

Dawn Chapman, who lives more than two miles away, says she smelled the foul odors in her neighborhood. 

She has concerns that what’s burning underground could reach the nearby Westlake landfill just to the north, which has radioactive waste... 

Republic Services out of Arizona operates the landfill. Two years ago, it found underground temperatures were increasing dramatically and began drilling to reduce the heat, in the process releasing the smelly gas. 

The company has said repeatedly that because the landfill sits in a huge limestone quarry that acts as a barrier under the ground, there’s no way any sort of fire could reach Westlake. 

“Isn’t that the same thing they said about the Titantic,” said resident Mark Neels. “I’m a historian by trade and what I’ve discovered is that hypotheticals have a funny way of becoming reality.”

That comment inspired a poem, to be sung to the tune of  "It Was Sad When That Great Ship Went Down."

It Was Sad When the Landfill Blew Up

Oh they built Allied/Republic
To pick up the trash from you
And the more they charge your city, then your taxes go up too
Republic wants to make more dough
So safety's the first thing to go
It was sad when the landfill blew up.

CHORUS:
It was sad. It was sad.
It was sad when the landfill blew up.
Trash building up methane gas...it was too good to last
It was sad when Republic's landfill blew up.

Nuclear waste was dumped
A bunch of years ago
And it's right next to this landfill
That's on fire down below
Republic claims it's as safe as can be
To have fire near radioactivity
It was sad when the landfill blew up.

[CHORUS]

Now, Bill Gates is the main owner
Of this huge trash company
So when he makes those giant profits
Know those come from you and me
Republic needs to respect the members
Of our community
It was sad when the landfill blew up.

Bill Gates is no Martin Luther King. Actually, he's the antithesis.

1. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., was assassinated while supporting a sanitation workers' strike in Memphis.
2. Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates owns the biggest stake in Republic/Allied Waste, a national waste disposal company.
3. Gates and Republic Services are doing the same thing to sanitation workers as the City of Memphis was doing to them in 1968.

Teamsters represent thousands of Republic/Allied Waste workers.

On Jan. 21, Teamsters from Atlanta and Memphis -- along with two sanitation workers from the 1968 strike -- marched in the annual Martin Luther King, Jr., Day parade in Atlanta. They were protesting Republic's treatment of its employees. The company has locked out workers, reneged on contracts and tolerated dangerous working conditions.

Read more here.

Today's Teamster News 01.30.13

Wall Street Banks Seize Opportunity to Profit from Nation's Unemployed  Common Dreams  ...'Too Big to Fail' banks including JP Morgan Chase, U.S. Bancorp and Bank of America have seized on an opportunity to profit off the nation's jobless by siphoning millions of dollars in fees from state unemployment programs...
Case-Shiller Index Shows Home Prices Increased 5.5% From a Year Ago in November 2012  Economic Populist   ...home prices are now comparable to September 2003...
Ray LaHood to step down as U.S. transportation secretary  Washington Post  ...Ray LaHood, the Illinois Republican who turned distracted driving into a national crusade while serving a Democratic president, will step down after four years as transportation secretary in the Obama administration... 
Obama Urges Speed on Immigration Plan, but Exposes Conflicts  New York Times ...President Obama challenged Congress on Tuesday to act swiftly to put 11 million illegal immigrants living in the United States on a clear path to citizenship... 
31 Senate Republicans Opposed Sandy Relief After Supporting Disaster Aid For Home States  Think Progress  ...When the Senate passed the long-delayed $50.5 billion Hurricane Sandy relief package Monday, 36 Republicans voted against the bill. But of the 32 no-votes from Senators who are not brand-new members, at least 31 came from Republicans who had previously supported emergency aid efforts following disasters in their own states... 
Viewpoint: The Decline of Unions Is Your Problem Too  TIME  ...If we want a better economy, then, we need a better story about how the economy works, in which a union worker is not a cost but a customer... 
Right-to-work legislation returns to Augusta  Bangor Daily News  ...Two controversial proposals that would make Maine a “right-to-work” state are back on the table in Augusta... 
Michigan asks for state high court ruling on 'right-to-work' law  Reuters ...Michigan Governor Rick Snyder has asked the state Supreme Court to rule whether a law passed last month making payment of union dues voluntary is constitutional, a move critics said was designed to circumvent legal challenges by labor unions... 
Gov. Rick Snyder Backs Off ‘Unfair’ Electoral Rigging Plan  Think Progress  ...Gov. Rick Snyder (R) came out against the plan this year... 
Republicans say Electoral College changes not in store for Ohio  Plain Dealer ...Ohio's Republican leaders...told The Plain Dealer this week that they are not pursuing plans to award electoral votes proportionally by congressional district...
Bill Gates: nice charity work, shame about the business practices  The Guardian  ...Perhaps the Republic Services dispute indicates that relying upon the generosity of billionaires is not a model upon which we can build a just and equal society – especially since the road to billionaire-dom oft seems paved with exploitation of workers, tax avoidance (hello Microsoft), and ever-decreasing wages...
Republic Services replacement worker fires shot in air at picket line  MENAFN.com  ...a replacement worker fired shots into the air at a picket line at the company's North Shelby Landfill in Millington...About 180 Teamsters went on strike early Monday morning over what they charge is the company's unfair labor practices...
‘Conciliators’ will decide on raise for sheriff’s staff  Columbus Dispatch ...Pickaway County is pleading poverty, but unionized sheriff’s-office employees contend that the county can afford to award them their first pay raises since 2009...Teamsters Local 285, which represents 30 corrections and communications employees, sought a 4 percent raise each of the next three years...

Hundreds to EPA: Stop Republic's nuclear fires in Missouri

Last night in Bridgeton, Mo. A big Teamster turnout.

Teamsters and Bridgeton, Mo., residents demanded last night that Republic Services safely remove its radioactive waste from an underground fire in a landfill it operates. More than 300 people spoke out against the against the dangerous situation at an EPA hearing in Bridgeton.

Republic Services' majority shareholder is Bill Gates, who claims, though his foundation, that he wants to improve global health.

KMOX News reports,

Residents and environmentalists claim the Environmental Protection Agency is taking a cap-it-and-cross-your-fingers approach to radioactive waste at Bridgeton’s West Lake Landfill. 

And even worse, while the agency squabbled Thursday night with the public over whether covering the waste is enough or not, that waste has been allowed to sit wide-open for years and years. 

Janelle Wright says there are consequences: 

“I have been witness to a lot of friends in caskets recently. Around our 20 year class reunion people started getting cancer at an alarming rate and dying. Horrible cancers, one in a million cancers.”

In fact, she says she’s compiled a list of 700 cases of rare cancers in the area around the landfill.

And this is rich: EPA officials said they'd tested the groundwater under the landfill and found no signs of seepage. The crowd shouted back, "We're in a drought!"

According to a statement, the hearing was attended by more than 300 people from the Missouri Coalition for the Environment, Missouri Jobs with Justice, and the Teamsters Union.

The statement explains:

The site, located in the Missouri River floodplain, is home to radioactive wastes dumped there in 1973 following secret uranium processing in downtown St. Louis. In late October 2012, residents around the landfill began complaining of foul odors and burning eyes—and the Pattonville Fire Department expressed alarm at rising underground temperatures and the danger that the developing underground landfill fire could migrate toward the buried nuclear waste sites... 

“We have members who live near and around the landfill. We also have members who work on the site, and we believe that the nonunion workers who work under Republic’s thumb deserve protection as well. The fire on its own is a big problem. What if the landfill fire were to reach the radioactive waste?” said Marv Kropp, President of Teamsters Joint Council 13. 

“Landfill fires can burn on for years and expand—just look at what happened to Republic’s landfill in Centerville, Ohio—a fire that raged for years until state officials and the EPA finally stepped up and forced real action on the part of the company,” Kropp added.

Perhaps Mr. Gates could put in a call to the EPA. Maybe they'd listen to him.

Hey, billionaires: We want respect, not charity

Last year was a very good one for billionaires, who made so much money they could afford to give a lot of it away.

It wasn't so good for the people who helped produce their wealth.

Bill Gates was $7 billion richer at the end 2012, despite making charitable gifts of $28 billion. Sadly, he couldn't find it in his heart to be respectful of the workers who contributed to his good fortune. Gates is the largest owner of Republic/Allied, a company that abuses its workers and the environment.

Gates wasn't the only billionaire who attacked working people but helped the poor. (Note: How do these billionaires think people end up poor anyway?)

Bloomberg reported 84 of the 100 richest people on the planet got richer in 2012. Many of them run companies that treat workers like serfs. They burnish their reputations (or is it "salve their consciences"?) through philanthropy. Bloomberg tells us:

Warren Buffett ... the Berkshire Hathaway chairman gained $5.1 billion during the year, even after donating 22.3 million Berkshire Class B shares in July to charity.

Message in Memphis for Bill Gates

Buffett's former employees may need charity. He bought the Manassas News and Messenger newspaper company last year, then fired all 150 of its employees six months later.

Bloomberg also tells us,

Koch Industries’ two other shareholders, the brothers Charles and David Koch, are each worth $40.9 billion, up 20.9 percent -- $7.1 billion -- for the year.

The Benedict Arnold Koch brothers give money to cancer research and the arts, but that's nothing compared to their funding of political machines to destroy workplace democracy, eradicate public education and impoverish the middle class.

But it's Bill Gates who's arousing Teamster ire this year.Business Insider reports,

...the Microsoft cofounder is getting wealthier (but)...Microsoft stock now accounts for less than 20 percent of his fortune. 

So if his wealth isn't just from Microsoft, where does Bill Gates invest? He's got a somewhat secretive investment company called Cascade Investment, according to documents filed with the SEC. From those filings we know that Gates owns stakes in companies like tractor maker Deere & Co; garbage collector Republic Services...

Here's what else we know: Gates is the largest owner of Republic/Allied stock, and his investment manager is on Republic's Board of Directors.

According to Wikipedia, his foundation:

...is giving the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development US$1.2 million over three years to find new, sustainable ways to make water, sanitation and hygiene services safer and more affordable.

Republic/Allied Waste earns exorbitant profits through operating greenhouse gas-emitting landfills. It profits from fracking operations on its landfill property in Ohio. It operates a Missouri landfill that is currently on fire next to a nuclear waste site.

The Gates Foundation also runs a "Global Development Program" that combats extreme poverty through grants.

Gates must be okay with ordinary poverty. That's apparently what he wants for Republic/Allied workers.

In May, the company approved a $23 million death/disability benefit for its CEO Don Slager while 80 of its employees in Evansville, Ind. were locked out because they refused to let the company destroy their retirement.

Learn more about the Teamsters campaign to improve the lives of workers at Republic/Allied here.