International Brotherhood of Teamsters. Local 813, Private Sanitation Union.

International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Local 813, Private Sanitation Union, was chartered in September 1951 with jurisdiction over workers in New York City’s private sanitation industry.

Leonard Krouner was one of the attorneys who represented Carnival Carting, Inc. and its Executive Vice-President Richard (“Rick”) Carnivale in a case that the union brought before the National Labor Relations Board in 1982. The union charged that the employers failed to bargain in good faith (and other related charges), and the employers countered with a barrage of allegations of intimidation and fraud on the part of the union. The context of the dispute was the bitter seventeen-day sanitation strike that began December 1, 1981 and left New York City covered in 100,000 tons of garbage. Two thousand members of Local 813 struck against 480 carting companies, three of which, Carnival Carting, S.W.C. (Statewide Carting Disposal) and Anchor Waste became involved in the NLRB disputes.

After a tangled series of proceedings, which included charges of malfeasance on the part of several judges and arbitrators, Krouner’s clients appealed to the Supreme Court of the State of New York in 1983. The respondents named were Bernard Adelstein, Secretary Treasurer of Local 813 and leading negotiator for the union during the strike; employees of the Tudor Carting Company party to a collective bargaining agreement with Local 813; the General and Special Counsel for Local 813; New York City officials authorized to collect judgment; any person or legal entity holding any property of Carnival Carting under legal restraint by Local 813; and the State Mediation Board. Several issues were finally decided in favor of the appellants.