These garbage men really stink.
Selfish Sanitation Department bosses from the snow-slammed outer boroughs ordered their drivers to snarl the blizzard cleanup to protest budget cuts -- a disastrous move that turned streets into a minefield for emergency-services vehicles, The Post has learned....
New York's Strongest used a variety of tactics to drag out the plowing process -- and pad overtime checks -- which included keeping plows slightly higher than the roadways and skipping over streets along their routes, the sources said.
The snow-removal snitches said they were told to keep their plows off most streets and to wait for orders before attacking the accumulating piles of snow.
December 30, 2010
"Sanitation Department's slow snow cleanup was a budget protest."
Headlines the NY Post in an article that begins:
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74 comments:
People died because these union mutts did this.
People died.
Remember this, always. Unions kill.
Dat's a nice job youse got there. What a shame if something should happen to it.
The shame of it is that, despite the damage to local economy and people's lives, nobody will go to jail.
It's probably not even illegal despite being a species of fraud.
Wow, if this turns out to be true everyone involved should be fired and prosecuted, and the union decertified.
That may explain this
Gee whiz, I thought it was those mean, nasty conservatives who were the "hostage takers".
Of course it's really the scumbag public employee unions who are terrorizing and paralyzing a city of millions.
At least one newborn perished as a result of their negligence, and I personally hope that someone is eventually charged with that crime.
Of course that will happen right after the union is disbanded and all the "slowed down" workers have been terminated. Which is to say, never.
"there's no right to strike against the public safety"
-Calvin Coolidge
Public-employee unions are good for only one thing and that is firing the union wholesale. These guys were paid year-round and refuse to work when needed. What are they good for?
They should all be fired. But they can't because they're in a union. Rather than going after michael vick THESE bozos should be put to death
Unions are always thugs, even if they didn't do it.
It stems from a mistake in the law.
Namely that people can join to assert rights against a third party that they individually do not possess. (You have to negotiate with us, in particular.)
That's the thugishness at its root.
Any right at all can be asserted once they get the hang of it; if enforcement isn't legal, well that's too bad.
Nice knees you have there. Shame if anything were to happen to them.
You know what got cleared first? Bike lanes. The pet project of beautiful people everywhere, bike lanes. Truck traffic? Fuck that. Clear the bike lanes and your membership in the anointed class is confirmed. So that's what Mikey cleared first. Bike lanes!
Their jobs could be filled in 5 minutes for less money in the current labor market. This is true of most government jobs.
If it's true, what great news for Bloomberg. Scapegoat City.
And there should be multiple mutiple firings and demotions.
I imagine that if it is true -- I think it likely that it is -- the amount of CYA action at Union Meetings right now is off the charts.
Go read some of the usual suspect liberal blogs today. Quite humorous when juxtaposed against their comments from a couple days ago when this story first reared its head.
I propose a system of high speed train lines carrying garbage out of the city.
Unfortunately, good, hardworking people who happen to be in a gov't union will be stereotyped with these union thugs.
These folks are probably the majority, but they can be faulted for not standing up to their union.
MadisonMan said...
I doubt they're very nervous at all. In fact, I'd wager that they're pleased as punch. They created a crisis so that they could take advantage of it, right out of the old Lib playbook.
A few sacrificial lambs will get thrown on the pyre, but the union itself will get whatever it wants. Because ultimately their work isn't what's important, only their votes and donations are. And those aren't what got "slowed down".
And there should be multiple mutiple firings and demotions.
Apparently pay cuts and demotions were at the heart of it, according to the whistleblowers (which included two supervisors). This is going to get ugly and we should all remember this as one of the opening shots of true ugliness if, due to runaway federal spending, the US is forced to take draconian austerity measures. Then we'll see riots and street combat that would turn Hoffa gay.
These folks are probably the majority, but they can be faulted for not standing up to their union.
Unlike, say, an average grandma in Germany circa 1939, the fine upstanding union members you cite are part and parcel with the organization. The organization doesn't exist without them, their labor, and their dues.
How it's done: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0808/12292.html
Reagan imposing a lifetime ban on ever rehiring the striking air traffic controllers was a particularly deft touch.
It's time to bust these libtards and their thug unions to nothing, grind them to ashes, and then salt the earth so that nothing will ever grow there again.
Legal blackmail is of no use unless it proves that it's threats to do terrible harm are real.In that same way the Obama-Soros cabal are proving their blackmail powers are real over at the EPA, FCC, DEA, and TSA Regulatory Agancies as we speak.
And people want to trust the same government that cannot plow roads and has turned California's central vallley from an agricultural dynamo to a dust bowl with our health care?
I worry what happens when people decide to stop tolerating this.
It always seems that attitudes toward unions is divided by whether or not one believes that corporate and wealthy interests always take immoral advantage whenever they can.
Which is often true. And sometimes not.
I can't believe it. Corruption in a big city government agency union? Next thing you'll be telling me that they take kickbacks and that they cheat on overtime.
And even those much-loved firefighters aren't immune. Here's a Wisconsin article about firemen getting paid to attend union events that they didn't go to as a way of reimbursing their political contributions to politicians who then approve their pay and benefit increases. The government employee union-industrial complex at work.
AllenS said...
I propose a system of high speed train lines carrying garbage out of the city.
Allen, high speed rail came out of the Governor elects mouth not 2 days after his election....
Selfish Sanitation Department bosses from the snow-slammed outer boroughs ordered their drivers to snarl the blizzard cleanup to protest budget cuts
Well on the bright side they're not sending parcel bombs to the Chilean embassy.
The WSj had an editorial about this and it said NYC has an annual budget of $63 billion. $63 billion? Is that right? I mean for NYC alone and not the whole state?
Good lord in heaven and they can't clear the streets?????
Wait until the public finds out that the Sanitation Department actually did make it out to clear Avenue F because that's where their boss lives but failed to clear Avenues D, E and G. How will their neighbors react?
And people want to trust the same government that cannot plow roads and has turned California's central vallley from an agricultural dynamo to a dust bowl with our health care?
The absolute BEST statement relating to that:
The missed opportunity came when Maher asked Huckabee how a Christian can consider it right for people to profit from illness, via our private health-care system. Huckabee objected to the characterization, and talked about ways government can help the sick. That’s all well and good depending on one’s policy preferences, I suppose, but I wish he had said something like this:
As a Christian, I recognize that man is a fallen, selfish being. If he were angelic, we would need no police, no laws, no government. But you and I know, though you are an atheist and I a Christ-follower, that mankind is reliably, unshakably self-interested. He cares more about himself, and perhaps his family and friends, than he does complete strangers.
How then will you compel him to set aside resources for the sick, or study medicine, or invent new technology to cure their diseases? Exhortations on billboards? Compulsory medical school? Technology labs run by the same people who give us the Post Office, and TSA?
The reality is this: there is no system of economic organization that produces more valuable discoveries, and greater advances in health and prosperity, than a free market. Embracing the historically failed economic policies that you prefer will only hurt people in the long run, by diminishing their prosperity, their dignity, and ultimately their health. And that is decidedly unChristian.
The public employees need a union because they can't trust the government to deal honestly with them individually, the same government we're supposed to trust our individual health care to.
Do sanitation workers clear the streets where you live? In my area, streets and roads are cleared by street maintenance workers, and garbage is collected by "sanitation workers." Is anyone else struck by the oddness of this?
AllenS, as usual, has an excellent idea. I would suggest, however, that the high speed train be powered by the sun. With solar energy!!
I so totally believe this story from anonymous snow removal snitches. Just makes you wonder what they are doing when it's not snowing!
If it IS true, Garage, and you were one of the workers...say one that was working in the vicinity of that baby that died...would you want YOUR identity known?
We're going to see this play out in a lot of similar, less dramatic ways, not necessarily orchestrated by union bosses. The rule is that you get what you pay for. As state and municipal governments try to squeeze their employees in response to budget deficits, the employees aren't going to work as hard.
As for the NYC situation, there is a neat conspiracy theory that would go something along the lines of this being a setup by pro-Bloomberg people so that he can step in and act tough, fire a bunch of people and enhance his national profile and presidential aspirations.
Paul is right, people died as a direct result of this. The union bosses are guilty of murder and should be so charged.
Jason is also right; Bloomberg should fire every worker who did not protest this vile behavior, permanently bar them from being employed by the city ever again and he should ban the union.
Yet Tim is right; politicians are cowards and nothing will be done. (Well, the government does go after pilots who exercise their free speech, so all is not lost.)
I so totally believe this story from anonymous snow removal snitches. Just makes you wonder what they are doing when it's not snowing!
GM is perfectly ok with WikiLeaks style snitching, but not when it hurts the unions. Fuck him and his high horse.
paul a'barge said...
People died because these union mutts did this.
Best argument in the world to abolish the public sector unions.
As long as the Demos run Gotham, the union slugs will be untouchable. The city needs a real two party system.
Jeremy, Trickling Down His Leg, etc., whining about Althouse Hillbillies hating "working people" in 3, 2...
My rare clumbers are jealous of others touching me.
If my mom or niece or UK Indian husband hug me the rare clumbers bark.
Thank you
Maybe New Yawkers should put Bloomyberg--.and his family and people-- out there to help out.
In terms of the Evil-o-meter, a piece of usurious mierda such as Bloomberg far out-rates union thugs
If it IS true, Garage, and you were one of the workers...say one that was working in the vicinity of that baby that died...would you want YOUR identity known?
Or, more likely, this story is more horsehit being shoveled by Murdoch and the NY Post.
Answer the question.
i am calling for a criminal investigation. a baby died, which means this might be criminally negligent homicide.
http://patterico.com/2010/12/30/if-true-how-is-this-not-criminally-negligent-homicide/
and the governor is calling for an investigation, too.
In Spain air controllers are going to be put to trail for sedition because they went in a savage strike. The government declared state of siege and put airports under military rule.
And the spain government is socialist
Reagan imposing a lifetime ban on ever rehiring the striking air traffic controllers was a particularly deft touch.
My grandmother was a government employee and staunch democrat, but she always said firing those air traffic controllers was the best thing Reagan ever did.
These guys deserve no less. If they can prove slow downs for individual employees, those employees should be fired. Even in a union shop, you CAN fire people.
Peach -
If currernt public employees won't work as hard as budgets are squeezed, there is a large supply of people willing to take their place. That's how it works in the private sector.
Maybe direct the injured parties to Bloomberg Co. Mikey can afford it, or at least have some meshugginah print up some shekels in a back room.
damikesc,
I worry what happens when people decide to stop tolerating this.
I wonder when^^^^if people will ever decide to stop tolerating this.
I so totally believe this story from anonymous snow removal snitches.
Why not garage? I mean its not like it came from a Brit tabloid.
But hey, lets assume for the sake of argument that the story is bogus and no orders to snarl cleanup were ever given. Now WTF is the excuse for the failed cleanup? Hmmmmm? Bueller? Anyone? A city with a $64 billion budget and they can't keep the friggin streets cleared? I guess when the government wants to do EVERYTHING for us they manage to fail on epic levels.
Heckuva job Bloomie
Answer the question.
Don't wait for the translation! Answer me now!
Now WTF is the excuse for the failed cleanup?
Mmm I don't know, I'm thinking maybe a blizzard with a few feet of snow piled on top of 10 million people would tend to slow things down. Only a well functioning GOVERNMENT can save us!
Answer the question.
LOL. Yes ScottM, IF some union workers were ordered to not clean the streets, that could have led to a baby being born in a lobby somewhere, they would probably want to remain anonymous. So instead of going to the NY Post with their story, maybe they should have .......just cleaned the streets?
That wasn't the question. Try again.
Why hasn't anyone blamed Obama? Bush gets shit for letting a hurricane hit a city below sea level. Obama gets no grief for letting a blizzard cripple the eastern seaboard?
Only a well functioning GOVERNMENT can save us!
Let the rest of us know when you find one mkay? I mean don't you think a city with a $64 billion budget should be able to at least perform its most basic service?
Why bother with garage? He honestly believes in that mythical creature of the imagination, the well-functioning government.
But please, tell us about the evil of "snitches". It has such a very mafia flavor to it, that word, "snitches". Almost as taunt as "rats". Such a very good word for the purposes of criminal conspiracists. The real ones, not the imaginary sort which plot to assassinate left-wing politicians and blame it on eccentric Communists.
Garage Mahal wrote:
Mmm I don't know, I'm thinking maybe a blizzard with a few feet of snow piled on top of 10 million people would tend to slow things down. Only a well functioning GOVERNMENT can save us!
All true, except where was this talk when Bush was dealing with Katrina? All of a sudden you are suggesting that natural disasters were hard to deal with, yet when Bush handled Katrina the fact that the entire city of New Orleans wasn't evacuated by day one was an example of Bush incompetence and an example of how he dawdled because he didn't care for black people.
Yet now, you suddenly want to get into the intricacies and hardships of emergency management.
We're not supposed to talk about Bush and the past, remember?
Mitch H wrote:
He honestly believes in that mythical creature of the imagination, the well-functioning government.
In the case of disaster like this that(govt) is the only option you really have, so I'd hope you want it to be well functioning. If your idea is to have a govt so limited that it can't deal with removing snow from roads then you're going to have areas that aren't cleared of snow till it thaw in the spring.
So in this case I'm for effective govt. But what does effective govt mean? not taht all roads will be cleared of snow in 24 hours. that is simply not realistic. To fault govt for not surmounting insurmountable problems in a time frame that you set, based on no realistic criterion based on actual fact means that you are not really credible about dealing with issues. You just want to hold govt accountable. And it was wrong when the libs did it to Bush and it's similarly wrong now when the conservatives do it to Bloomberg. people suggest that if their side were in power you'd have adequate govt to deal with these issues and that any problems are simply incompetence.
More likely, there are problems becuase the issue is not easily fixed. And plowing a street takes a long time, and there are limited resources to work with (even if the amount of resources is larger than used in the past). You are not going to clear out NYC and all of it's burroughs in a day. To expect otherwise means you are a moron.
And it's not made better when the people who are supposed to be doing a job (clearing the snow) are in fact not doing so out of some need to punish Bloomberg for abudget protest.
Hoosier Daddy wrote:
Let the rest of us know when you find one mkay? I mean don't you think a city with a $64 billion budget should be able to at least perform its most basic service?
Are you suggesting that no streets were plowed? If streets were plowed then govt is performing its most basic service. If not every street was plowed in your alloted time frame, maybe you're not being particularly realistic about expectations.
Why wasn't the Iraq war won in a day? Why didn't Bush evacuatte everyone from NO in two days? Maybe because its not realistic to expect them to do so. Maybe the govt should have used one plow for every street, and hired people to shovel out everyone's driveway while they were at it. Why not also set up personal cabs for eeryone in an outer burrough that were hovercrafts so they could simply float over the snow, and that way noone would miss work? Maybe Bush should have bought all NO residents a car a week before hurricane Katrina?
That doesn't mean that govt still can't be incompetent, but for someone who thinks that govt is incompetent you seem to expect them to do an awful lot. If the reason you think they are incompetent is because they can't move heaven and earth in the limited time frame you've alloted, maybe govt is not the problem.
re Bush, who said? You mean by not blaming him all the time? Funny your guy keeps coming up with ways to extend/expand Bush's programs.
Answer the question, Garage. If it was YOU, would YOU want to remain anonymous or would you cower and not report the union holding the city hostage (to use the President's words) in order to affect a protest?
You're assuming the story is true again. But if it were me, I'd just plow the goddamm streets.
Selfish Sanitation Department bosses from the snow-slammed outer boroughs ordered their drivers to snarl the blizzard cleanup to protest budget cuts --
===========================
Wait a minute. You are talking about part of the Heroes of 9/11. While people run from burning buildings and Hero Cops and Firefighters rush in, remember people run from smoking debris that New York's Strongest (the 3rd Hero Union) clean up.
The Hero Cops and Firefighter Heros got a 8 billion pork bill passed for renumerating their Herohood, reduced to a mere 4 billion by heartless Republican people that do not properly worship the NYPD and NYFD.
But the Hero NYGC (New York Garbage Collection) union did not have the NY Media, Bloomie, and various Congresscritters out to bring home the bacon - raise a protest or lift a finger for the Other Heroes in Uniform. Who were at Ground Zero for All Of Us, Helping Bring Closure...by moving the toxic debris out.
All they got is budget cuts! No mention of why they also deserved not just no cuts but 4 billion in gravy spread around.
No wonder the "NY's Strongest" trash collectors are pissed!
Fortunately, like the private contractors who were also in the Pit with the Hero Cops and Hero Firefighters - the garbagemen, ironworkers, engineers appear to have better health than NY's Finest and NY's Bravest.
And their fault for not using 9/11 from Day 1 to get the moolah and perks Head Pimp Rudy got for his beloved cops and firefighters...
I mean, Americans are gullible enough and readily susceptable to moral blackmail - had the trash collection union people and heavy equipment operator people and engineers at Ground Zero cultivated the same Hero-Victim narrative - they could have demanded and got billions in gravy.
Poor souls! Now protests in a broke city that only cares for teachers, Manhattan Elites, cops, Wall Street bankers and firefighters - are their only vehicle for demanding their own gravy from NYC and America's taxpayers.
Too late people! Had you had Rudy pimping you too, early, the nation would have paid for the privilege of kissing your heroic asses!
Or, more likely, this story is more horsehit being shoveled by Murdoch and the NY Post.
Truly lame.
So I guess we can believe Bloomberg's protestations that he is NOT interested in a presidential campaign. Can Cuomo forget his ambitions if he doesn't do a thorough investigation and provide consequences?
Of course there is no mention in the NY Times of the possibility that a union protest was at underway. Or if is is there, it is buried somewhere.
Or, more likely, this story is more horsehit being shoveled by Murdoch and the NY Post.
So basically it is a toss-up between "the union workers are incompetent" and "the union workers deliberately did a bad job"?
Why, in either case, is it worthwhile to keep employing them? Sack the lot; there are plenty of people looking for work who would be willing and able to plow a street successfully.
I live in Queens and this storm was not as bad as the blizzard of January 1996. The drifts were just as high if not worse. Then, I opened my door to find snow up to my shoulders. It also started on a Sunday mid day and ended Monday. That was as much snow, but it was much heavier snow (because the temp was higher). This snow is light and fluffy.
Guiliani had the side streets plowed on Monday that 1996 storm and by Tuesday morning 5am it was clear enough to drive and my bus had chains on the tires! No chains this time around and my bus and others were stuck everywhere. Bloomberg didn't make a first plow until Tuesday late morning. As of today, Nostrand avenue wasn't plowed. He makes Manhattan a priority for business, but forgets the workers who live in the outer boroughs need to be able to get there to work!
Guiliani never forgot the outer boroughs. Every borough was equal and were his keys to reelection. If there is one complaint over and over it's, "Bloomberg doesn't give a shit about MY neighborhood."
Bloomberg was such an arrogant prick on Monday. He finally is acknowledging mistakes today. Jerk.
Now I can walk to the store, etc, but if I or any of my neighbors had an emergency we would have been screwed.
Andy Levy from Red Eye made a good joke.
"I'm assuming the reason NYC is still a total mess from the blizzard is because Mayor Bloomberg won't let salt be used to melt the snow."
Andy Levy from Red Eye made a good joke.
"I'm assuming the reason NYC is still a total mess from the blizzard is because Mayor Bloomberg won't let salt be used to melt the snow."
By the way, it was quiet on Sunday. Usually they are out and ready, salting as it comes down, ploughing as it comes down. This time, they aren't there until Tuesday.
And on Sunday, the not only made overtime, but double time.
I think Bush is responsible for Katrina and all of global warming. Thankfully Obama was elected and he is so cool he not only stopped global warming, he reversed it. Hmm perhaps Obama is just a little too cool. /sarc
wv jaybe: jaybe, just jaybe, some of those responsible will be terminated.
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