“…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.
Miles of roads stretching from as north as Whitestone, Queens, to the south shore of Staten Island still remained treacherously unplowed last night because of the shameless job action, several sources and a city lawmaker said, which was over a raft of demotions, attrition and budget cuts.
‘They sent a message to the rest of the city that these particular labor issues are more important,’ said City Councilman Dan Halloran (R-Queens), who was visited yesterday by a group of guilt-ridden sanitation workers who confessed the shameless plot.
Halloran said he met with three plow workers from the Sanitation Department — and two Department of Transportation supervisors who were on loan — at his office after he was flooded with irate calls from constituents.
The snitches ‘didn’t want to be identified because they were afraid of retaliation,’ Halloran said. ‘They were told [by supervisors] to take off routes [and] not do the plowing of some of the major arteries in a timely manner. They were told to make the mayor pay for the layoffs, the reductions in rank for the supervisors, shrinking the rolls of the rank-and-file.’
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….”
“New York’s Strongest”? New York City Department of Sanitation employees do not deserve to wear that badge. Instead, they should be renamed “New York’s Sleaziest” or better yet, “New York’s Filthiest Union.”
My suspicions as mentioned in earlier posts are confirmed. To spite Bloomberg for his layoffs and to pilfer a broke City’s coffers dry and the pockets of taxpayers, the Sanitation union instructed its membership to intentionally send broken down Sanitation trucks out onto the streets of New York knowing that they would break down. They also instructed their membership to drag their asses, not plow and to better yet, have a cup of coffee in Dunkin’ Donuts.
A Sanitation Dept. plow truck is stuck on West 16th St. in the Coney Island neighborhood of the Brooklyn borough of New York, Tuesday, Dec. 28, 2010. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)
“…multiple Sanitation Department sources told The Post yesterday that angry plow drivers have only been clearing streets assigned to them even if that means they have to drive through snowed-in roads with their plows raised.
And they are keeping their plow blades unusually high, making it necessary for them to have to run extra passes, adding time and extra pay.
One mechanic said some drivers are purposely smashing plows and salt spreaders to further stall the cleanup effort.
‘That is a disgrace. I had to walk three miles because the buses can’t move,’ said salesman Yuri Vesslin, 38, of Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn.”
Do these unionized Sanitation workers realize that by they have betrayed their families, neighbors and friends, all of whom live in the same communities they inconvenienced and allowed to suffer.
Do these unionized Sanitation workers realize that people died needlessly because of their job action?
Do these unionized Sanitation workers realize that hard working New Yorkers who were unable to get to work because of the snow and their slowdowns and inaction will lose day(s) pay because of their job action?
Do these unionized Sanitation workers realize that the lives of those who died are on their hands because of their job action?
And why did they do it? They claim it was done because of layoffs by Bloomberg and for the OVERTIME PAY. They are only partially right.
Unions after layoffs perform the ritual dog and pony shows when for the most part once laid off, you are gone forever and they no longer see you as worth the effort. This slowdown was really about the union getting its hands on City money, i.e., OVERTIME PAY.
As far back as I can remember, never once has the Department of Sanitation been denied OVERTIME during a snowstorm or blizzard and they are determined that they would not be denied now. Therefore, to achieve their goal, the Department of Sanitation threw MILLIONS of NEW YORKERS UNDER THE BUS, even if it meant people died in the process. And some did.
I am still not giving Michael Bloomberg a pass but New Yorkers must open their eyes and see what City unions for whom they are. The unions have proven once again that they care only about what they can get and to hell with everyone else.
Damned un-American and downright inhumane, you think.
The time has come for the City of New York to dump these damn unions and its members.
New York City has an unemployment rate of 9.1%. That means that there are plenty of unemployed New Yorkers willing to do these jobs for far less without the union.
The unions honestly believe that they sent a message to us as to how necessary and important they are. I beg to differ. The message I received is that unions have overstayed their welcome and must go, ONCE AND FOR ALL. New Yorkers deserve better.
The problem is that Bloomberg has neither the stomach nor the spine to take these bastards on. Unfortunately, he is not alone. Far too many New Yorkers lack the spine and stomach to tackle the unions as well.
When New York? When?
The New York City Council has scheduled a dog and pony show hearing to be held next month on the City’s response to the blizzard of 2010.
One must take the scheduled dog and pony show hearing with a grain of salt considering Council members are in the pockets of unions. The hearings are a farce and an assault by unions on Michael Bloomberg.
Finally, as of this posting (8:35 a.m.), less than half of the streets in Brooklyn have been plowed. Many of the streets plowed are only partially plowed, meaning, Department of Sanitation employees are driving into the blocks with their plows down but not down far enough to do the job correctly.
They plow a couple of hundred feet, if that much and stop. They then lift their plows high above the snow and drive through the rest of the block over the snow leaving the remaining 2/3 of the block unplowed.
The message to New Yorkers, “You’re not seeing things. We were here and now we’re not.”
To hell with the investigation, FIRE EVERYONE and DUMP THE UNION.
P.S. Of course, the abundance of snow on the streets of the City will begin to decrease and not because of snow removal by the Department of Sanitation who has now been exposed but due to the increased outdoor temperatures over the next couple of days. Today through Sunday, the temperatures in NYC will rise into the mid-forty’s. This will cause the snow to melt causing a new wave of troubles for New Yorkers, i.e., FLOODING. Oh well……….
Have I ever mentioned (OK typed) that I despise unions?
They are truly unworthy of the love that New Yorkers heap upon them. As I hear people say “I don’t blame the Sanitation workers,” I ask WHY NOT?
Unions are destroying us and ripping NYC to shreds.
When my son came in at 6 this morning, I asked him about the streets. He said that some streets are only a third done; then there are some you think may have been done but you’re not sure because they were plowed so poorly and others still have not been touched.
He said that he saw four snow plows out there but they were not working. They had their plows raised.
Plows raised..Jesus H. So it seems the onions are compounding their idiocy.
the anti-union mentallity right now is fox five driven propaganda.lets not forget that union members are the middle class.our pension funds fuelling the stockmarket.our abilty to spend fuels the economy.our health insurance funds wind up paying for the un-insured.our backs build the infra-structure that gets you to your job.without the unions we would wind up day laborers,no health insurance,not paying taxes,draining the economy
The anti anti-union mentality is Progressive propaganda espoused and passed on by corrupt union leaders who hemorrhage their membership, pensions of their membership, city and state municipalities, and taxpayers. The audacity is the expectation that taxpayers should be thankful for the fleecing. I beg to differ.
Fox is simply exposing the profuse corruption and voracity of unions, while other media outlets pander to Progressives and their agenda choosing to give the subject a pass. Using their members like pawns on a chessboard, unions (leadership) no longer represent the interests of its membership, the membership only think they do. Bad for the unions is that many union members are finally awakening to that fact.
One need not watch Fox to see realize the corruption and insatiability of unions. I happen to be well versed in the art of union rhetoric and manipulative dog and pony shows, as I am a former shop steward and assistant shop steward twice over. Fox News has nothing to do with my “anti-union mentality.” I base my “anti-union mentality” on experience.
It is not a secret that unions for their own benefit, as proven this week in NYC, will hold Americans hostage for its own selfish gains, i.e., MONEY, even if it results in death (also as proven this week in NYC).
The unions’ swan song should be “GIVE ME, GIVE ME, GIVE ME or America be damned.”
The short of it is that unions have long outlived their usefulness in that they have not only become a burden but they are playing a major role in the economic collapse of our country. Thank Heavens the country is awakening to that reality.
oh yeah,sounds a little like sour grapes.you must of been one of those paper bag stewards,or a no show,who got pinched.
what about the corruption in big business and politics that is truely fleecing this country.when is the country going to wake up to that?republican and democrate both!do we just dump our political system,shut down all big business because parts of it are broken?
what happened to the buck stops here.blame from the top.your not a good manager if you did not see there was going to be appathy in the workplace.a storm like this and they didn’t call in everyone before it so they could get to work.assign plow trucks to ambulance and fire companies.get awd ambulances in the first place.use all this new technology to keep track of which streets did get plowed.train other city personell to assist 911 opperators so it didn’t take 20 minutes to get through.have private contractors on the ready.i could go on
people die everyday it is sad to say but only makes the headlines for propaganda.why don’t you put blame where it belongs paperbagman
I’d rather place the blame where it belongs, i.e., on UNIONS and their failed union tactics. Why is that everytime an argument is rendered moot, Progressives they revert to attacks, name calling sinking lower than pond scum? You know what I mean, kind of like what you do.
Btw, sour grapes NO, an honest asssessment, YES and one refused to sell one’s soul, something which unions and its leadership sorely lacks.
The truth is that Americans are on to unions and unions, its leaders can’t handle it so they revert to vile tactics and vitriole.
Just for the record, I have nothing against the membership, it’s the leaders and the union itself that I DESPISE. They’re leading their membership to hell in a handbasket.
Unions Are Destroying America’s Economy
P.S. Ever hear of spell check genius or are you going to blame Bush and big corporations for that too?
for all of you fox watching lemmings: have you ever worked behind a garbage truck, breathing diesel fumes all day picking up tons of garbage all day? have you ever worked the 12-8 shift in the middle of winter, or on new years eve, or christmas eve? have you ever plowed 21 days straight, some 15 hr. shifts? freeze in winter, sweat in summer, and have the highest rate of injury of any city dept. including, nypd and fdny. ask me how i know. i was paralyzed while working as a sanitation man in 1985. wanna trade places with me or the other self sacrificing men who risk their bodies, miss eating with their families and get rewarded by some ungrateful ny post, fox news, rupert murdock, pencil neck who never did a physical job in his life. most real new yorkers appreciate their sanitation men. imagine nyc without us. and when there are no union jobs that pay a decent wage, nyc will look like new delhi, filthy, overcrowded with people selling their kidneys or children to survive, but the few rich bastards who work on wall street or the big banks will be hiding behind the walls of their suburban mansions or doorman buildings hoping the workers don’t get smart enough to realize that they are the enemy, stealing from all the rest of us while blaming the unions. absolutely the most disgusting article i have read in a long time.
It is unfortunate that you were paralyzed on the job.
You do, however, have other issues that you can deal with starting with your anger and disdain for those who don’t kowtow to you, your union and its membership. It is my taxes that pays the salary of the city, state and federal workers. I also reserve the right to express myself in accordance with the first amendment.
I refer you back to my response to comment # 4.
your taxes? HA! look at the checks of Sanitation Workers….the taxes they take out of their checks are ridiculous. they pay their own salaries. try again.
Jarod, Jarod, Jarod, One more sip of that kool-aid and you’ll choke. Wake up SHEEPLE. It is the American tax payer who pays the salaries of government workers. Now that little tidbit you might find unsettling but the truth my SHEEP shall set you free.