Bay Area sanitation workers back at work following labor agreement

Sanitation crews returned to their jobs over the weekend after a strike left garbage piling up across Bay Area municipalities.

Republic Services, a waste management company, said Friday it had reached an agreement with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters to end the walkout that began July 8.

Teamsters Local 439 members had walked picket lines at Republic’s Forward Landfill in Manteca for nearly two weeks.Many Republic Services employees in the Bay Area had refused to cross picket lines.

Several local officials and residents had warned of an impending public health crisis, if the collections didn’t resume quickly.

The strike affected several local cities, ranging from Antioch to San Jose. Limited trash collection resumed over the weekend in parts of Half Moon Bay, Newark, Fairfield and Fremont.