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The New York blizzard mess: union retaliation?

Discussion in 'News & Current Events' started by rbell, Dec 31, 2010.

  1. rbell

    rbell Active Member

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    SOURCE

    Ah, yes...unions at their finest.



    I bet there won't be a single firing over this debacle.
     
  2. rbell

    rbell Active Member

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    NY Post: SOURCE


    Public sector unions are a scourge on our country.

    If it can be shown that the actions of these goons resulted in any of the deaths that occurred, then all involved should be charged with manslaughter, and thrown under the jail. And their pensions should be seized and given to the victims' families.

    Every employee that cut corners to pad his/her hours should be fired.

     
  3. billwald

    billwald New Member

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    >Selfish (NY) Sanitation Department bosses

    Unless there is a boss union . . . municipal department heads are exempt positions. Most management positions are exempt.
     
  4. rbell

    rbell Active Member

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    Well, the feds are opening an investigation...

    SOURCE

    I hope that if this ends up becoming a criminal matter, that they throw biblically harsh charges against these folks. I can't think of a lower creature than a "public servant" who would use a public emergency to make political points--sacrificing public safety for their own cause. If someone's doing that, I have absolutely no problem with public beatings.

    But hey...this is New York, and we are talking unionized folks. I doubt the truth ever comes out.
     
  5. SpiritualMadMan

    SpiritualMadMan New Member

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  6. quantumfaith

    quantumfaith Active Member

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    I am mostly "with you" on the union thing in general. As a life long educator, who has never joined the "teachers union" at perhaps peril to my career. I never joined due to many issues, the primary being social/moral stances that these unions usually state in their policy statements.

    However, one positive, speaking only for "teachers unions" is that it is a check on nepotism, which I have seen often in my career. Very competent and gifted teachers being booted prior to "tenure" in order that someones niece or nephew who just graduated from college can obtain a job.

    I would be all for the marginalization of teachers unions if there were some way to address such capricious use of authority can be checked.

    Teachers unions have been a very big part of the dismantling and destruction of values and achievement by students in our public school systems.

    Private (christian) schools are not immune to the very same issues one can see in any public system.
     
  7. annsni

    annsni Well-Known Member
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    Well, there's conflicting reports about this and honestly, the suburbs, that don't have union issues, also didn't have streets cleaned well. I can be honest when I say that this storm was a doozy. We got a LOT of snow in a short amount of time and it continued blowing very hard after that. I was in the city on Saturday and it's amazing how many cars are parked on streets on both sides that make it kind of tricky for my minivan to get through the street, no less a plow on a truck. It wasn't until the thaw of Friday/Saturday/Sunday that a lot of the snow on the streets was gone. So while there may be some issue about a slowdown, I also think that this was just a very bad storm that created a lot of difficulties for the public works. Hey, when the Long Island Railroad shuts down completely for days, it's a bad storm.
     
  8. rbell

    rbell Active Member

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    Ann, that's why I put the disclaimer, "If this becomes a criminal matter."

    I think there's a very good case to be made for the following: Exactly where was the snow supposed to go? You can't just make 2+ feet of snow disappear (not with sub 32 temps, at least!).

    I support the mayor's decision to not call a snow emergency. Where were those millions of cars that would have been required to be moved supposed to go?

    But I also support an investigation. And if this was deliberate, make some people pay. Big time.
     
  9. annsni

    annsni Well-Known Member
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    Yep. I have to say, though - the storm came on a Sunday. I would have paid plenty of money to get my personal car off the street and put into a parking garage. It's not like it was a weekday where you also were dealing with worker's cars. I don't care if I had to go all the way to the other side of town, a parking garage for a week would have been well worth it, you know?

    Years ago, we had tons of snow - literally. I think we were at 4' of snow, having snow storms every 5 days. Finally in the city, they used melters to melt the snow on the streets so that it could just run to the river in the storm drains. Around here, we brought all the snow in dump trucks to the beach and that snow pile was still there at the end of May!! It was incredible.

    But I agree - investigate and punish those responsible if there was any sort of behavior that was less than professional.
     
  10. annsni

    annsni Well-Known Member
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    Very funny - just when I posted this, our village truck came by to pick up the Christmas trees that people are throwing out - and they plowed some more at the end of my driveway!! It's been a week and a half since the blizzard and we had three days at almost 50 degrees but we still have snow that needs to be moved. :)
     
  11. billwald

    billwald New Member

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    How many inches of snow melted in those 3 warm days? If not much, then question answered.
     
  12. targus

    targus New Member

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    What is the question that you think is answered?
     
  13. annsni

    annsni Well-Known Member
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    Quite a bit. Our lawn started with 18" and now there are large patches of empty grass but the snow piles are still around since they insulate themselves and last much longer than what's on the grass. The snow at the end of our driveway is about 2.5' tall. But we're due to get 6" on Friday so I'm sure they're getting prepared for that - making sure that they aren't plowing old stuff along with new stuff.
     
  14. billwald

    billwald New Member

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    Was trying to make the point that big piles of ice and snow don't disappear in a few warm days. Did the mayor have the plows run 24 hours a day? If so, had it been budgeted? If not, it is OK to go over budget to clear snow from the roads? How much before you all complain about next year's tax bill?

    Do you expect city employees to work 18 hours a day on straight time? Maybe they should donate their time?

    How many trucks with plows might a medium sized municipality have? Say ten?
    If so, how many would have been required to do a proper job? 20? 10 trucks might cost a million bucks. Would you vote to have a million buck worth of trucks sitting around because they might be needed every five or ten years?
     
  15. annsni

    annsni Well-Known Member
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    I think I can answer a few of these questions. :)

    No, the snow didn't all melt in those few days because of the large piles we had. The plows DO run 24 hours until the job is done and the men expect overtime during that time which is proper. The city uses garbage trucks to do the plowing along with other sorts of equipment (payloaders, pick-up trucks, larger trucks with plows) so they have quite a few trucks. In our village, we hire independent contractors along with our own town people and most of the work is done with large pick-up trucks with plows on the front. All during the winter, you see people driving their own private trucks with plows on the front. The majority of landscaping companies also do plowing in the winter and we have a LOT of landscaping companies around here. They tend to do the parking lots and private properties. The independent contractors can also be hired by the municipalities to do the roads but they would only be those who have been trained to plow roads properly. I think in the city, it's only the sanitation department that does all road plowing. As for the budget, every municipality and city comes up with a budget and then blows it if it's a bad year. They never say "Well, we ran out of money so we can't plow." So it is made up in some other fashion. Honestly, I don't think anyone has ever gone under budget for snow removal. Don't know why but each year we hear about them going over budget. Well, that's for the city - not sure about, say, our local village.
     
  16. billwald

    billwald New Member

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    In other words, an occasional mess caused by an occasional blizzard is an act of God. I blame God and bad drivers, not the government. Unless it was caused by HAARP. <G>
     
  17. targus

    targus New Member

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    The snow was an act of God.

    The deliberate skipping of streets by the snowplow truck drivers was an act of the union.

    Not all that tough to understand.
     
  18. annsni

    annsni Well-Known Member
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    Well, we'll have to see if it was deliberate skipping of streets. What they don't show you is that the streets that did not get plowed had cars abandoned in the middle of the street, thus making it impossible to plow until the car was towed. I don't know about you but if I had to abandon my car in a snowstorm, I'd for sure be back the next day to get it out of there - but no one did that I saw. So that took away the ability for plows to get down these very narrow streets in the city to plow them. Even city busses were abandoned for days! Once those were cleared out, they were able to get to the streets pretty quickly.
     
  19. rbell

    rbell Active Member

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    So, if you were in charge, then you would dismiss the allegations out-of-hand, without any investigation?

    Figures.
     
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