Alameda County's Garbage Strike Woes

Alameda County (the East Bay) has been hit hard by a garbage worker lockout by trash mega giant Waste Management. News reports show that some Oakland residents have not had their trash picked-up for over a week and there is worry of infestation of animals, rodents, and flies spreading diseases around.

What makes me concerned is that the workers were locked-out, and were not planning to strike. Their contract was up and the workers were to go negotiate out a deal with management, but instead, WM's management decides to lock them out and get "scab" workers to pick-up the trash.

First of all, the scab workers aint really doing their job right, especially if they cannot pick-up the trash like 10 days LATE.

Second, why in the world would management lock the employees out when it could have been dealt with easily without a lockout?

Waste Management's solution for now is that citizens can transport their trash to their local dump collection site. But the irony of dropping off your trash at one Waste Management site is that they are only open on WEEKENDS and you have to dump your trash in 35 gallon trash bags. Well damn, you piss people off with those two rules and you scab workers don't pick-up the trash? What a shame. And how about the people that don't have a vehicle to get their garbage there? I don't think any AC Transit operator will allow a citizen to transport stinky trash on the bus!

Let's summarize my rants:
Stop the lockout, and get the workers on NOW.
If you can't stop the lockout, get the scabs to work overtime and even do it at night.
Every citizen should refuse to pay their garbage bill in protest of shitty service.
Waste Management in Alameda County is history.