The Blizzard and the Sanitation Workers....

[gcarter]

I had a sales appointment yesterday morning w/a young couple from New Jersey. Towards the end of the appointment the discussion turned to the recent blizzard.
I mada a comment about the allegations that the union sanitation workers in NYC had been staging a "Sickout/Slow Down" during the worst of the storm, and that if true, it was outrageous. My potential customer said he wasn't so sure and that he came from a union family........:eek:
His wife said it was outrageous, but only because people died!!!!

Being from the South, I guess I have a different viewpoint from some folks from other parts of the country. Many of the Southern states are "Right to Work States" and unions have very little support here. And my own attitude is that if someone hired you to do a job, get the hell out there and do it! Take the various power companies in this region and when major storms (read hurricanes) come through, the line workers are out there working 24/7 till the repairs are made. You don't see articles in the newspapers about the line workers having a slowdown. It doesn't happen!:yes: I guess it's a different culture in the northers tier of states....one I can do without!
I guess my own opinion is that when unemployment is 12% and 10% of the workers call in sick and many of the rest are in slow down mode when millions of people are suffering because of them, it's time to come down like a pile driver w/some budget cuts. These folks have proven to the society at large that their services are no longer needed!

[Bamboo Loui]

George, you and I have had a couple of emails re right to work- just thought in case you didn't know, line workers make a ton to work that 24/7 you mentioned and I suspect many look forward to big storms just for that reason. My B-in law was a supervisor and ran large crews until he was released from his job after 25yrs for taking advantage of the system. He was making real good 6 figures running his crews from his office and working on the road when required. The Unions have these guys covered and big incomes are the norm.
Although overall I could not be much happier with the service the power guys provide, the money is insane and the work ethics are generally pretty bad.
Our local telephone company is just as bad- we have been waiting for a terminal box sitting square in front of my pole barn door to be moved for 2 years!! wonder why everyone is going wireless!!
Looking at all the comments, my guess is that discussing unions is akin to discussing politics- very polarizing.

[gcarter]

I suppose if the negotiated working conditions require pretty much whatever pay is required, so be it.
But, obviously, this wasn't the time to throw a tantrum when peoples lives and livlihoods are at stake.
If the unions are found guilty of endangerment, they deserve what they get, plus a little extra.

[MOP]

I had to delete a very large rant!

Anyone with any sense at all can see what unions have done to this country and other countries, they have a controlling factor in politics. They cause goods and services to cost significantly more, they strike and in most cases harm the public doing so! Unions original intent was worker protection that in many ways has become a license to steal from those that pay the bill but do not reap the same benefits. It is high time unions were abolished we have ample laws to protect workers. We can see the political influence, the major unions have opted out of health care Gee what about "WE THE PEOPLE" the poor slobs that pay the bill! What unions are and have done has been thrown in our faces since the 2008 election do many have doubt they need to go away!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well this is a mini compared to my first rant!!!! I am 70 now and was a union member and did see many things with my own eyes, unions should be illegal most have very dubious ties even the deaf and blind know that!!!

[Bamboo Loui]

seriously, not trying to egg you on, but I totally agree with you. I just purchased out of bankruptcy a small companys' assets and restarted the company. During the DD, it was obvious that 2 things had happened to the 40 year old company-- 1-new management that had zero business savy and 2. an aggressive union. The cost of doing business was out of control and the union was preventing any type of improvements to take place so that the company could compete with the Chinese.
When I started it back up, I allowed all that had been employed to fill out apps, AND I hired the best back- those who were willing to give it their all so that the company would not have to go under again. They decertified the union. They are working their butts off and are happy doing it. Just 4 months in and our sales are above last years 12 months sales and we are making a profit.. The guys who are working their butts (ALL) off will be recieving rewards for doing so--something the union would never have done for them--and they are really happy to be part of a success instead of being unemployed. I hope I can keep up my end.:wrench: If I can,:crossfing: it should be a happy ending.

[Conquistador_del_mar]

I'm glad to hear some of you voice your thoughts about the negative impact of unions - something I have preached for years now. Like so many other programs or institutions, unions started as a good solution to a serious problem, but morphed over the years to become a serious problem to free enterprize. Obviously, corruption and abuse has crept into the picture due the incredible amount of money involved. I can't help but think of one of my favorite lines from a movie - Blazing Saddles. "Gentlemen, we must protect our phoney-baloney jobs". How many products would still be made in the US if it weren't for the non-competitive (aka non free enterprize) pay scales upheld by unions? My guess is quite a bit of difference from where we are now. Just saying. Bill

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trade_union

[Marlin275]

This story is true
and was broken out by the NY Post,
Fox&Friends, Murdoch ownership
not a word in the NY Times?

This was the worst clean up since the Lindsay administration . . . February 1969 nor'easter

[Marlin275]

More workers catch a 'cold'

It was a real snow job.

Between 660 and 720 Sanitation workers called in sick for the cleanup of last week's blizzard --
more than double the usual rate, The Post has learned.
About 11 to 12 percent of the Sanitation Department's 6,000-strong force didn't show up for work on Monday or Tuesday,
city officials confirmed, as 20 inches of snow brought the Apple to a near-standstill.
The spotty snow response sparked reports of a deliberate slowdown by some Sanitation supervisors angered by City Hall cost-cutting measures.
The Department of Investigation is looking into the allegations.

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/more_workers_catch_cold_v3XzpQhakSbrmY0LMcd6iJ#ixz z19u4gsIjm

[Inferno]

Unions will be the downfall of this country like they are in Europe. My friends father who worked for GM in Atlanta told me that he never finished high school and worked for GM as a line worker. Yes he had 24 years with them and was making $54.00 a hour, plus great benifits (100 % medical /dental and eyes).Also a car or truck for cost !!! He told me stories I couldn't believe that went on in that plant. No wonder they closed. Last year my brother in law had a company in El Paso employing 120 workers..the shop voted for a Union because they were told that everything they wanted,they would get if they voted in the Union. They voted the Union in and a week later the Union officials had a meeting with my Brother in law. They told him that if the workers had small children and needed diapers that he better do what they wanted !!! He closed the doors the next day and moved the whole manufacturing plant to Mexico. Now there are 120 worker in El Paso looking for work.

[joseph m. hahnl]

During the American Civil War (http://www.donzi.net/wiki/American_Civil_War), the Union was a name used to refer to the federal government (http://www.donzi.net/wiki/Federal_government_of_the_United_States) of the United States (http://www.donzi.net/wiki/United_States).



HMMMMMM!!! Corruption in the union is not limited to the business sector.:salute:


Today, unions represent less than 15 percent of the labor force—and less than 10 percent of the labor force in the private sector.


People take for granted the laws that are in place that protect us as workers. These laws would surely be deregulated if unions where to completely disappear.

Lets see cuts to balance the Budget. OSHA,Department of Labor,Industrial commission.....:idea:



Many unions campaigned against passage of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). The labor movement feared that NAFTA (http://www.donzi.net/topic/north-american-free-trade-agreement) would undercut jobs of union workers and weaken the ability of unions to negotiate favorable contracts with employers.



like yah man,NAFTA's like a good thing

http://dudetruth.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/haight-hippie.jpg

Read more: http://www.answers.com/topic/labor-union#ixzz19vMUwY2C

[Marlin275]

Sanitation Supervisors Spent Day Drinking In Their Car, Witnesses Say

Instead of plowing, they got plowed.

A group of on-duty Sanitation supervisors is under investigation for allegedly buying booze and chilling in their cozy department car for hours Monday night after the blizzard stranded a bus and three snowplows blocks away.

The city Department of Investigation is probing the incident after witnesses said four snow blowers blew off their duties to get blitzed, buying two six-packs of beer from a Brooklyn bodega. The workers then walked five blocks to their car, which was in 20 inches of snow in the middle of 18th at McDonald avenues near the F train entrance, passing the stuck bus and idle plows on 18th Avenue between Third and Fourth streets.


CHILLED BEERS: Plow trucks sit idle on Monday, shortly after the storm let up, in Kensington, Brooklyn. Witnesses say four Sanitation supervisors spent the night drinking in their official sedan a few blocks away.

The four remained in the idling sedan until morning -- then told their bosses they could do nothing about the blizzard because they had run out of gas, one witness said.

"They just sat in their car all night with the heat running," the witness said.

Customers who saw the group buying beer at the Ocean Mini Mart at 3917 18th Ave. in Kensington shouted at the workers.

"They were saying, 'How can you do this? You should be outside!' " a witness told The Post.

But the Sanitation team was unmoved.

"One guy said, 'Don't worry about it. We know what we're doing,' " the witness recalled.

A block from the deli, six riders remained on the snow-stalled bus all night.
The supervisors had shown up at the deli near Ocean Parkway at 8 p.m. when a smiling, uniformed Sanitation honcho bought a six-pack of Heineken Light, the witnesses said. About 30 minutes later, another worker from the group bought a six-pack of Corona Light.
Later, they ducked inside their car and hunkered down.
"I saw them drinking, but I'm not sure what it was," said a witness who lives in the area.
In the morning, the four men returned to the deli, where they were heard telling their bosses over the phone that their car had run out of gas.
"This guy was on his cell and said, 'We're out of fuel,' " a witness said.
Department of Investigation Assistant Commissioner Keith Schwam said "we're looking into what happened."
The DOI is also investigating whether Sanitation workers contributed to the chaos with an organized slowdown.
Yesterday, city officials claimed every street in the city had seen a plow and said garbage pickups would resume tomorrow, starting with street-corner cans and, possibly, residential trash.

Additional reporting by C.J. Sullivan



Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/brooklyn/slushed_sloshed_fX907nPJIEevDILBvlYAtK#ixzz19vk67w sv

[gcarter]

http://lucianne.com/images/lucianne/DailyPhoto/2011-01-02-XGMGK.jpg

[Sweet little 16]

union slow down during blizzard being hailed as life saver.

despondent man jumps from 9th floor trying to kill himself lands on garbage pile not picked up cause of the slow response from the blizzard snow clearing effort. the garbage has been piling up but it seemed to save this guys life


funny how things work out

[Marlin275]

Apparent Proof Of NYC Blizzard Clean-Up Slow-Down Surfaces CBS New York – News, Sports, Weather, Traffic And The Best Of NY

Criminal investigations are under way to find out why it took so long to dig out from last week’s massive snow storm.

Videos released exclusively to CBS 2’s Marcia Kramer suggest that the clean-up job may have been dirtier than once thought.

One video is now in the hands of prosecutors. It shows two sanitation trucks driving down 155th Street in the Whitestone section of Queens after the blizzard without removing the snow.

Their plows were apparently raised and the snow was left untouched in their wake, apparent proof that some in the Sanitation Department engineered a work slowdown.

“[It’s a] tremendous shock,” said NYC Councilman Daniel Halloran, R-Queens.

WCBS 880 Reporter Rich Lamb talks with Sanitation Commisioner John Doherty about a possible slow-down
Halloran said he was told by a number of sanitation workers that their supervisors told them to take their time, that one at City Hall cared about them.

But sources tell Kramer that’s just one of the things in the city’s botched blizzard response being investigated for criminal wrongdoing by Brooklyn U.S. Attorney Loretta Lynch, the Department of Investigation and district attorneys in Queens and Brooklyn.

Sanitation workers spotted asleep on the job, apparently hanging out at a Coney Island Dunkin Donuts for 11 straight hours and some drinking beer for six or seven hours instead of working are all being probed.

“If they find people that did criminal acts they’re going to arrest them,” Department of Sanitation Commissioner John Doherty said.

Sources tell Kramer that one of the most amazing charges being investigated concerns the reported refusal of some sanitation supervisors to give assignments to crews of Department of Transportation plows that were sent to sanitation districts to plow residential and secondary streets in the outer boroughs, leaving them impassable.

“They were there to be deployed to do the secondary streets while sanitation did primaries and they sat and waited and they radioed in and said what’s going on with the deployment and were told to sit and wait, they would be assigned,” Halloran said.

Kramer: “For six hours? For eight hours?”

Halloran: “For six to eight hours. In other words, one full shift.”

Sources said two Department of Transportation supervisors have already been questioned by investigators.

“After looking at what happened there’s going to be hell to pay for the people who caused this and everyone’s going to be held accountable,” Halloran said.

Department of Investigation Commissioner Rose Gill Hern said the city is aggressively trying to pursue evidence of deliberate wrongdoing. She is urging members of the public and city employees to contact the agency.

She said information will be kept confidential.

http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2011/01/03/video-of-apparent-blizzard-clean-up-slow-down-surfaces/

[Marlin275]

Feds open criminal probe into alleged city worker conspiracy during storm response

The city Department of Investigation is also looking into allegations of a work slowdown in retaliation for budget cuts and demotions of supervisors within the Sanitation Department.
Federal prosecutors opened a criminal probe into allegations sanitation workers conspired to paralyze the city in last week's blizzard, sources said.

The investigation by the Brooklyn U.S. attorney's public integrity unit was prompted by the claim by City Councilman Dan Halloran (R-Queens) that guilt-racked workers told him a slowdown was ordered as vengeance for budget cuts and demotions.

If true, the feds could examine whether wire or mail fraud statutes were violated by workers pocketing overtime pay during an illegal job action, sources said.

The city Department of Investigation is also probing the allegations, and the Brooklyn and Queens district attorneys are reviewing the claims.

Joseph Mannion, head of the sanitation supervisors union, said he welcomed the city and federal probes as chances to clear his members' names.

"We have nothing to hide. We absolutely did nothing wrong, and I look forward to it," he said.

Halloran said he believed the slowdown was limited to "some supervisors in Queens and Brooklyn who have a grudge. ... It wasn't all the rank and file. And I don't believe it was a union-sanctioned operation."

One sanitation worker blamed private contractors hired to help with the cleanup near Midwood's Washington Cemetery. Councilman David Greenfield (D-Brooklyn) called it "terribly disturbing."

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2011/01/04/2011-01-04_nyc_blizzard_feds_open_criminal_probe_into_alle ged_city_worker_conspiracy_during.html#ixzz1ABIf2A jF

[Ghost]

union slow down during blizzard being hailed as life saver.

despondent man jumps from 9th floor trying to kill himself lands on garbage pile not picked up cause of the slow response from the blizzard snow clearing effort. the garbage has been piling up but it seemed to save this guys life


funny how things work out

Not sure this worked out as well as I heard it first reported, much as you had. Heard an update to this story this morning that he's paralyzed, likely for life.

[zelatore]

I know there are plenty of New Yorkers on here, so no offense but...

This whole thing just strikes me as so New York. OK, make that NYC.


It's hard to imagine this happening in most places, but in NYC? Oh sure, we all believe it. No problem.

Yeah, yeah, like I've got a lot of room to talk. I'm sure you all can find plenty of unflattering things that are so San Francisco... No need to go there. :wink:

[Conquistador_del_mar]

Not sure this worked out as well as I heard it first reported, much as you had. Heard an update to this story this morning that he's paralyzed, likely for life.

So now the despondent guy is trapped in a paralyzed body - :nilly: Bill

[DonziJon]

Cities DO have a problem with where to put the snow. If it keeps coming down, eventually there's a problem.

February 6-13, 1978 Rhode Island. No one shall ever discuss this. No one knows anything about the "Slow Down" conducted by the RI DOT on that fateful day when the entire state Stopped for an entire week. Providence is the crossroads of the state. I-95 North and South runs through there. I-195 from Massachusetts to the east meets I-95 in Providence.

I was there. I worked in downtown Providence. I got out of work about noon and headed east on I-195. Under the overpasses in East Providence there was a long line of "standing" plow trucks...eight or ten maybe ..just sitting there as the snow came down. I may have been one of the last cars to get out of the city beyond those trucks. I had a 1974 Toyota Corolla with "Studded" Snow tires and a half dozen cinder blocks in the trunk.

The picture below is I-195 heading west into Providence. A SIX lane Interstate.

It's the RI/Mass border. Funny thing how the Mass side back to Fall River is all clear.

It's a poor quality scan from a 33 year old newspaper. :yes: DJ

[VetteLT193]

I got to go to Rick Scott's inauguration this week and it sounds like it is going to get much better for Florida business... It ties right into this thread, he's going the polar opposite direction of the ridged North :crossfing:

[gcarter]

so San Francisco... No need to go there. :wink:

It sure would be easy and fun to do so.....
But it would seem like piling on!

Aw, why not!
Just like the newly former Speaker and her 757!!!!!!! :nilly:

Is she gonna lose that thing?
I know she had everyone's best interests at heart.

[DonziJon]

This is Totally OFF Topic: ..BUT Nancy is HOT...:yes: DJ

What's Nancy got to do with Sanitation Workers....?

[zelatore]

It sure would be easy and fun to do so.....
But it would seem like piling on!

Aw, why not!
Just like the newly former Speaker and her 757!!!!!!! :nilly:

Is she gonna lose that thing?
I know she had everyone's best interests at heart.

Bzzzzt!
http://www.factcheck.org/askfactcheck/did_nancy_pelosi_order_up_a_200-seat.html

You'll have to try again! Not to worry, their's a rich vein of SF craziness to tap. You should have no trouble!

[DonziJon]

Bzzzzt!
http://www.factcheck.org/askfactcheck/did_nancy_pelosi_order_up_a_200-seat.html

You'll have to try again! Not to worry, their's a rich vein of SF craziness to tap. You should have no trouble!

VERY LONG Article..Not worth my time to read it all. BULL. :kingme:

[gcarter]

This is Totally OFF Topic: ..BUT Nancy is HOT...:yes: DJ

What's Nancy got to do with Sanitation Workers....?

I'm sure she would like to represent every last one of them!

[DonziJon]

I think Nancy is over 70..NO...?

I saw Beiner (sp) took an extra PECK at her cheek when she handed over the gavel. What was THAT about. :confused:............

Someone did an alternative video showing Beiner whacking her over the head with that big gavel...SNL..? Ya gotta love it. Happy Days are Here Again....The only voice we have is the ballot box...now it's up to THEM..