Pittsburgh garbage collectors agree on contract

Averting a strike that threatened to interrupt this week’s Major League Baseball All-Star festivities, Pittsburgh officials and leaders of Teamsters Local 249 today announced that they had agreed on a contract through 2010. According to the Pittsburgh Tribune Review, the contract is likely to be ratified by the city’s 166 garbage workers in a vote this afternoon. No terms were announced, but the deal is expected to include a retroactive pay concession to compensate for a two-year wage freeze. Pittsburgh’s garbage collectors have been working without a contract since Dec. 31, 2003.