INC NEWS - solid waste workers are not cheap

[bragin at nc.rr.com]

Randy,

i think Patrick did a pretty thorough job explaining the hows and whys 
of the current sanitation worker scheduling issue, so there's really no 
point in continuing to beat the straw man of these guys being "part-
time" workers anymore. They're not, regardless of how many hours they 
actually spend on the truck.

As to the larger issues you raise, let's think this through a bit.

Should sanitation workers be paid on a par with entry level McDonald's 
fry cooks? This question i think answers itself.

Should sanitation workers be paid on a par with skilled construction 
workers? Maybe, maybe not. By the way, i'm curious where your $13/hour 
figure for construction workers comes from. Most of the skilled 
electricians, plumbers, glazers, masons, etc. who i run into make 
considerably more than that. Perhaps that's a figure for generally 
unskilled apprentices around the job site? To my mind, having a guy on 
the garbage trucks who can get the job done is worth more than a guy 
with 
a shovel and a wheelbarrow moving dirt at a construction site, but 
that's a subjective analysis, and you may think otherwise.

Regardless, our sanitation crews perform a necessary function. How 
necessary? Just look at how upset people have gotten at having their 
trash go uncollected for a day. What that means in a simple supply/
demand analysis, is that the demand for their labor is high enough that 
their compensation is probably going to exceed the minimum wage which 
you may think they are worth. 

As for unilaterally changing the compensation structure which Patrick 
tells us has been in place for nearly 9 years, common sense and a 
modicum of knowledge of labor history shows that such attempts, when 
imposed by management, universally cause resentment among the workers 
doing the job. The greater the perceived loss of wages or quality of 
working conditions, the greater the resentment. In parts of the country 
where workers are represented by unions, such attempts will almost alw
ays be met with organized withholding of labor, or a strike, in other 
words. You may think that the answer to this situation is to make "some 
personnel changes in a hurry," but not only would that be morally 
wrong, it falls into the category of what my father used to call 
"cutting off your nose to spite your face."

Using contemporary workplace jargon, what needs to happen is that all 
of the stakeholders need to be brought to the table, and take ownership 
of whatever changes need to be made. It may very well be that 
sanitation workers in Durham are overpaid by regional and historical 
standards. But i suspect that any unilateral attempt to cut those wages 
and benefits unilaterally will result in a whole lot more garbage being 
uncollected. Fortunately, it takes me a month or more to fill my trash 
can to the top, i compost pretty much everything that can be composted, 
and i live near to the recycling center. So i'm probably less dependent 
on the sanitation crews than a lot of Du
rham residents. Even so, i don't think we do the city a favor by 
calling for any employees wages to be reduced in this manner. Our 
sanitation crews live in and spend money in Durham, contributing back 
to our economy. Why shouldn't they be paid a living wage?

Finally, the temp issue is a real one. If the crews are compensated 
based on the tasks (routes) completed, and not their hours worked, i 
don't see any problem with that. But if the tasks are not being 
completed, and the crews are still reaping the benefits of that wage 
structure while the city is forced to hire temp workers to finish the 
job, then that's a legitimate problem to be addressed. I suspect that 
if one were to dig deeply into the issue, all kinds of things we don't 
like to talk about might arise, many of which would have nothing to do 
with the guys riding on the backs of the garbage trucks. But solving 
this part of the problem is, i think, more difficult than you seem to 
think it is.



Barry Ragin

----- Orig
inal Message -----
From: RW Pickle <randy at 27beverly.com>
Date: Friday, May 19, 2006 2:57 am
Subject: INC NEWS - solid waste workers are not cheap
To: inc-list at durhaminc.org

> Kelly Jarrett wrote:
> 
> "I'm not sure what the trash guys get paid"
> 
> With wages and benefits (and mind you it's only for 28-32 hours a 
week
> they do this for), it runs between $27K and $33K a year. Not bad 
> for a
> part time job (32 hours and less is considered part-time). So it's 
not
> like they're not getting paid or something.
> 
> A full-time worker at McDonalds (they could get a job there if they 
> wantedto work inside and get paid for only the hours they work) 
> makes a little
> more than $13K a year. The solid waste workers make more than a
> construction worker making $13/hr who doesn't typically have any 
> benefits.So we're not really talking poverty here. These folks are 
> paid. Add other
> perks and it just gets better. Sure it's outside work. But so is most
> construction, polic
e, and fire. Let them get jobs at the mall if 
> they want
> to work inside. People work outside because of the nice days. They're
> rewarding. The bad days are just that. Some construction workers 
can't
> work on the bad days so they have to lose their pay for that time. 
All
> jobs have their good and their bad. People chose to do it or they 
> don't.Everyone has a choice.
> 
> Kelly Jarrett wrote:
> 
> "You try hanging out there for 40 hours in, say, January or
> August, and then see if you're still so comfortable with your 
> sermon on
> work ethic."
> 
> We're not talking about me, and it's not for 40 hours. The 
> constructionindustry brought me to NC. I was a field engineer. Our 
> company had $328M
> worth of work in NC. It was major construction, all outside. I had an
> easier job than some, but I had rain gear like the rest of them. 
> And in
> cold weather, I had insulated stuff to wear. Why? Because it was 
> outsidework like picking up trash is. Like I said, peopl
e chose to 
> do what they
> do. And being outside on the nice days was really nice. Just as it 
> is now.
> If you work inside, how many days do you wish you could be outside 
> whenthe weather is nice? Probably a lot if you're in an office all 
> the time.
> When the outdoors is your office, you have to take the good with 
> the bad.
> But like I said, the good is really good and the bad is just that. 
You
> dress for it.
> 
> The problem is, that the temp labor, including the temp agency fees,
> really amounts to more than the highest paid solid waste worker 
> mentionedabove. So when you have to fill in the slack from the 
> regular worker only
> working 28-32 hours (but being paid for 40 with benefits), the cost 
of
> making up the difference becomes an issue. And that is what this is 
> allabout; working the hours you are paid for. I have no reason to 
> believethat if the workers worked an additional 8-12 hours a week 
> they are paid
> for, the ship would eventually get
 headed in the right direction. 
> We might
> lose some of the help in the beginning of this program because they 
> onlylike the job because of the short hours/long pay, but it would 
> soon work
> itself to being a 40 hour week with all the work done on time. 
> We're not
> talking about working less. It would actually be more time spent 
doing
> work. So you'd get more work done (unless as a protest there was a 
> workslowdown; in which case there would be some personel changes in 
> a hurry).
> 
> I've heard fromm 2 sources that they are working on a plan to fill 
> in the
> gap with other City workers rather than use temps. That hardly 
> seems the
> answer. Get the crews to work 40 hours; period. If they can't get the
> routes done in an extra 8-12 hours a week, then there needs to be 
some
> better planning. All they would be doing is working the time they 
> are paid
> for working (but they don't). What's the big deal about that?
> 
> Just my 2 cents from the pulpit.
> 

> RWP
> 27 Beverly
> 
> RWP
> 27 Beverly
> 
> 
> 
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