Public Union Crimes

The recent snow emergency in New York City brings to light what can happen when a public employees union decides that it wants a bigger piece of the pie.  In NYC, the issue is that the city wants to cut the sanitation budget by 6%...and the union is pissed.  So, it appears that the corrupt sanitation union leadership decided to not clear streets in the more affluent section of the city, such as the upper west side, portions of Queens and a few other areas.  The NY Post has reported from numerous sources that union leaders ordered the slow down to punish the wealthiest sections of the city.

Sources said budget cuts were also at the heart of poor planning for the blizzard last weekend. The city broke from its usual routine and did not call in a full complement on Saturday for snow preparations in order to save on added overtime that would have had to be paid for them to work on Christmas Day.


The result was an absolute collapse of New York’s once-vaunted systems of clearing the streets and keeping mass transit moving under the weight of 20 inches of snow.

The Sanitation Department last night denied there was a concerted effort to slow snow removal.

There are no organized or wildcat actions being taken by the sanitation workers or the supervisors,” said spokesman Matthew Lipani.

Joseph Mannion, president of the union that represents agency supervisors, said talk of a slowdown “is hogwash.” But he admitted there is “resentment out there” toward Mayor Bloomberg and his administration because of budget cuts.

His counterpart at the rank-and-file’s union, Harry Nespoli, has also denied there is a job action, though he admitted his guys are working lucrative 14-hour shifts.

Bloomberg spokesman Stu Loeser said only: “We would hope this is not the case.”

But 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.

 What makes this story so damning is that several people died because emergency services couldn't respond.  At least one new-born baby died because they mother couldn't  get to a hospital in time.  When NY's union beholden lame duck governor is calling for criminal investigation, then you know it's pretty bad.

New York Gov. David Paterson called for a criminal investigation after the New York Post published a story quoting union workers and supervisors who related that some streets were plowed over and over while countless others were purposely skipped. Don't be surprised if the city faces years of expensive litigation. One newborn baby died when its mother was reportedly forced to wait for nine hours for care, a Brooklyn woman waited for nearly two days for an ambulance, and countless others endured miseries and injuries that went unreported. It's beyond outrageous that these things happened because unionized city workers don't like 6 percent pay cuts when city officials are desperate to find ways to save tax dollars.

I think the best solution would be to charge the union leaders with Second Degree Murder, seize their union pensions, dissolve the union itself and fire all of the sanitation workers.  That may sound extreme, but that's pretty much what Ronald Reagan did in the early 1980's when the Air Traffic Controller's union struck during a contract dispute.  It would show that the city is genuinely interested in getting itself out of the huge pension hole that it's corrupt coterie of union leaders and politicians have dug the city into through it's overly generous pension and contract grants.  Here's a suggestion from the comments. 

To begin with, arrest and charge the union leaders with second degree murder. Fire those who called in sick, and those who didn't do their jobs. Once that's done, take away ALL of their money (pensions, health care, etc.) that they've stolen from the taxpayer, and they go to jail.  It's slowly dawning on people how politicians and the criminal public employee unions have participated in the total economic destruction of every facet of municipal, state, and federal governments.  Give the members a choice: retain the union, and you're out of a job, or quit the union and keep your job at a lower wage, and benefits that you must pay at least 50% out of their own pockets.

That would be the place to start.  Public employees shouldn't be permitted to hold their city/county/state/federal government hostage for wages or pensions.  None of the very generous public pensions in this country are really solvent.  That's the next big story as millions of public employees begin to retire and the hole in all these underfunded plans begin to show...

<noscript>Watch the latest video at href="http://video.foxnews.com">video.foxnews.comnoscript>

Public unions have been sucking off the public tit for almost a century.  They have long since achieved their stated goals and it's past time to dissolve them.  When a union can hold an entire city hostage, then it has broken it's promise, especially when it's deliberate actions cause the deaths of innocent people.  Unfortunately, we don't have any politicians with the courage to face down public unions by firing those workers who don't do their jobs...more's the pity.