NY Post: Blame the Garbage Bosses
Today in blizzard finger-pointing: “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…
Today in blizzard finger-pointing: “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.” The subject line of the email from a reader yesterday morn that included this photo: “This is Fulton street?”
Sanitation Department’s Slow Snow Clean-Up Was a Budget Protest [NY Post]
Do we know why the plow was at the side of the road? No. There are plenty of legit reasons, such as changing drivers, going to the rest room, getting a cup of coffee or a sammich, or out of gas, or breaking down, or taking 5 after hours of hard work. Or it could be one lazy ass worker staging a mini-strike.
Does anyone really know? No, it’s much more fun to go with a worker’s conspiracy, than the mundane truth of the human need to relieve oneself, or take a break from trying to clear streets full of abandoned vehicles, angry pedestrians and conspiracy seeking Post reporters.
rh, while I’m generally skeptical of those media outlets, I’m equally skeptical of NYT, CNN, and other news organizations that claim to be neutral. Everyone has an agenda, but that’s no reason to outright discredit them.
NBC news had a helicopter go around to various sanitation dept depots yesterday and they saw lots of trucks with plows just parked there, in Brooklyn
Comment from the jerk in chare was that it was a “shift change.”
Fabrication or not, no one can deny that this cleanup was botched. If someone wants me to believe some conspiracy theory about a work slowdown, I won’t rule it out. Not because I hate unions (I don’t) or because I’m prone to believing conspiracies (I’m not), but because this whole thing was f’d up. Whether it was botched intentionally or not, it was botched and everyone involved, from the mayor to the plow drivers to my a$$ho1e neighbors who haven’t shoveled their sidewalks deserve a heap of blame. And it ought to be the subject of a serious investigation. My wife and child haven’t been able to leave the apartment in 5 days because you can’t get a stroller across the street. Major streets have yet to see a plow. We’ve had storms just as bad as this in the past few years, and it got cleaned up much faster and more efficiently. Maybe its the budget cuts. Maybe its union shenanigans. Maybe its some combination of the two. But denying the possibility because of the source is just idiotic.
And why did we have to cut 400 workers? Because Sumners, Greenspan, heads of Morgan Stanley et al, etc, won’t allow any government regulation of their dangerous and corrupt activities.
Ok, I just googled it. I only see this story in the Post, Fox and some other anti-union right wing blogs. Until I hear it from somewhere credible, I don’t believe.
plenty of blame to go around! most everyone involved effed up
Those 400 workers wouldn’t have made a bit of difference, unless there were 400 extra garbage trucks equipped with plows that they could drive.
Also, we don’t know exactly what those 400 people did, nor do we know if those are 400 people who lost their job or a combination of unfilled positions eliminated/attrition and lay-offs.
ishtar- considering how many streets were unplowed for days, it wasn’t the work of just a few. MM is right.And so is Mopar.