NY City Workers Planned Their Slow Response to Record Snowfall As a Protest to Budget Cuts
Posted by Jim Hoft on Thursday, December 30, 2010, 8:00 AM
Selfish New York City Sanitation workers planned their slow response to the record snowfall as a protest for budget cuts.
The New York Post reported:
These garbage men really stink.
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.”
Among the victims of this crime: A newborn baby died after waiting nine hours for paramedics to arrive.
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Published May 21, 2012 at 12:19 am - 55 Comments
JDStone commented:
Every one of the bastards need to be fired!!.I doubt Bloomie has the cajones, though.Shameless!!
Mike commented:
Don’t worry. Al Sharpton will find racial implications in slow clearing of white snow. Remember what Reagan did to the air traffic controllers?
ouldbollix commented:
Public sector workers and their unions will bring down America
Carbon Pootprint commented:
Pardon me while I don’t GAF. The only thing that could have made it better is if they’d cleared the outer boroughs and dumped the excess snow in Manhattan.
Ginger commented:
Class Action lawsuit is in order. Sue the workers, union, and mayor. The mayor knew what they were doing! Come on a baby died because of them!
Robert commented:
The unions have become the exploiters they once stood against. Their victims are the public who pays their wages and salaries and bloated pensions.
retired military commented:
I believe someone died from ambulance not being able to reach them. If so they need to be charged with involuntary manslaughter and thrown in jail. Firing and loss of pension and benefits should be the least of their worries.
Neo commented:
Criminal prosecutions !!!
JulieP commented:
Pure and simple put every last union boss and supervisor on trial for the murders of every person that died these past few days. You will immediatly bankrupt the unions even if no convictions are forth comming end of union slow downs.
katy commented:
This is how the progressives will hold America hostage when things ”really” start to fall apart. No drivers for food distributors, fuel, medical, and just about all necessary services.
They will shut down all services and production until they get what they want.
They will be responsible for people dying and as we saw in NY, they won’t give a rats a$$.
This is some pretty evil sh!t !!
Betsy Ross commented:
Absolute power corrupts absolutely…politicians and unions…out for themselves on our dime…lives are lost and for what? Money…yours and mine…
JKB commented:
Seems to me this is the perfect time to outlaw public sector unions in NY. Not to mention, the criminal prosecution of those that willfully participated and incited this.
Multitude commented:
People should be proud to die for the hope and change their President has called for them. Recalling First Lady Obama’s notable quote that Barack “is going to demand that you shed your cynicism, that you put down your divisions, that you come out of your isolation, that you move out of your comfort zones, that you push yourself to be better and that you engage. Barack will never allow you to go back to your lives as usual, uninvolved and uninformed.”
The President could have readily engaged when he realized the local forces were inept, and was most certainly briefed at least daily on the developing situation of paralysis. In Post-Katrina, it is a certainty that he was given input from DHS specific to this situation and scenarios, but once it became a matter of labor disputes, it had to be “hands off,” supporting the productive chaos and disruption that is a necessary vehicle for change.
Remember, many more died in Russia, China, Kampuchea, etc. to compel the workers to overthrow the evils of Capitalism.
joe commented:
@katy You are sooo right and now they also want ALL the police and firemen to join the union .
listingstarboard commented:
New Yorkers deserve what they get after allowing Bloomburg to change the law that allowed him to run for a third term. California, Illinois and New York will find out that elections have consequences.
MWTexas commented:
Well, this sounds all the world like a RICO violation in a clear attempt to extort the city government. Quick, let’s get Holder involved. He’ll make sure justice is served.
Louise B commented:
This is the perfect time for the family of the baby that died to sue the union for millions. They can use the union’s own words/papers against them in court as this was deliberate. I’m sure there was a law violated somewhere that allowed a baby to die.
Robert commented:
If government services are so critical that we are forced to pay for them, then it should be against the law to interfere in any way with the delivery of those services.
This illustrates the joint exploitation of the public by the government/union cabal.
The government forces us to pay, then the union holds us hostage to force us to pay more.
jorgen commented:
They don’t appreciate their jobs. Fire the Sanitation Department bosses and then have a serious talk with the workers.
bigkahuna commented:
Not to worry the community organizer will save everyone and negotiate a new more lucrative contract for unions. He will sign a presidential order demanding it and add anothere fee onto the other several hundred fees and taxes to do it……probably in the dark of night on a friday night about 6:30
The public sector unions are in deep shiiiiit on this and soon to be many other issues as pensions screw their respective cites/ states
C-CS commented:
Detroit is a dead city because of the UNIONS–(and socialist welfare-whoops -same thing) –
the UNIONS were among the first community organizations that got top heavy…
I had heard that union members start fires-even forest fires – to get the CHECK $$$$ –
Wonder if the NY plows were run into the citizens’ vehicles on purpose–
Law suit time -against the $$$$$ filled unions….
C-CS
Gini commented:
The weather bureau is also to blame as they waited until the last possible minute to call the blizzard. Thus the streets were NOT cleared of parked cars. And many of the less imtelligent residents shovelled their cars out and tried to drive – without chains on – and ended up blocking the streets making it impossible for ambulances, fire, and/or police to get through. AND, then with streets blocked the ploughs could not do their job.
[NYC habit that when you shovel out your car, you dump the snow back onto the street which had just be cleared.]
Of course, blame Bloomberg and the unions, but the ordinary residents bear a lot of the blame. Many people were too lazy to even shovel a path outside their house or apartment building. I took a bad fall on the packed down snow which had turned to ice on my block.
mpw280 commented:
If proven true the unions should be dissolved and union representation limited in the future. If this can be proven in court the public employee unions may have just slit their throats, what a shame about that too. mpw
GrayRider commented:
There should be no public sector unions. PERIOD!!!
Henry Hawkins commented:
The public sector union in NYC just presented us with the absolutely best representative example of why we need to get rid of public sector unions. Plus, Mayor Bloomberg may have just ensured he never reaches higher office than the one he occupies now.
Chippy commented:
I live on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. There are two unused snow removal trucks parked a block from my apartment. They are just sitting there covered in snow. I have pictures.
Iconoclast commented:
These jobs pay well and don’t require much intelligence nor much training. Fire them all, bring in non-union private firms to operate the equipment – and train the replacements if they must keep these as public jobs (privatizing would save mucho dinero, to say nothing of cutting into mafia profits). End of problem. But Bloomberg, as a typical neutered liberal worm, would rather play kissy face with CAIR and the gun banners than do something about this. As much as I sympathize with the residents of NYC, they are the ones who elect these corrupt leftist scum buckets. “Elections have consequences,” after all. Perhaps this will be a “teaching moment” for the municipal electorate?
Aaron Worthing commented:
I am guest blogging at Patterico, and i ask the question. how is this NOT criminally negligent homicide?
http://patterico.com/2010/12/30/if-true-how-is-this-not-criminally-negligent-homicide/
I mean at least one person, a baby, died.
its time for a grand jury to be convened.
Ladue Pundit commented:
Carbon Pootprint commented:
Pardon me while I don’t GAF.
—-
The last hostage takers in NY were garbage men, also. Only Democrats can allow gutter snipes to wield such control.
USAF 77-84 commented:
I’m about to piss-off alot of people on this comment section, unless your military or ex-military, but CIVILIANS SUCK.
Ginger commented:
Chippy #26 Take pictures it can help if lawsuits start. The pictures can be sent directly to the lawyers. That baby and lady and their loved ones should get their JUSTICE. The unions needs to be taken down a notch or two. They are useless and are destroying our country.
Tjexcite commented:
Welcome to the new normal.
Communist Unions will not take any cut laying down. Go slows, slowdowns and work to rule are just one tactic they have. Riots and violence will be not the last but will be next.
To Communists, deaths are just a side affect when the ends justify the means. If millions need to die to get the communist utopia that unions want, more the better. Less mouths to feed in the end and send to the death camps when the collective food runs out.
Ginger commented:
USAF 77-84 commented:
I’m about to piss-off alot of people on this comment section, unless your military or ex-military, but CIVILIANS SUCK.
……………………………………..
So piss us off some more and tell us why we suck!
Rock commented:
You people better back off, these are Obama’s army of thugs charged with keeping him and his thugs in office. Eric Holder will not pursue any case against his and his main squeeze royal guards. These traitors could care less on who get hurt just so long as they get your hard earned dollars. Truth told I rather have a streetwalker in the family than a son who was union.
Oldpuppymax commented:
Funny, but the word UNION doesn’t seem to appear anywhere in the story! No doubt just an oversight.
KR commented:
#30,
I appreciate our military greatly, but don’t forget, it is the civilians/private business (excluding civilian gov. employees) who pay the military’s salaries through creating wealth and paying taxes.
Please don’t lump all civilians together.
Ditto commented:
People of NY are taxed so much, paying dearly for these thugs that think they can do what they want, and then they have to take this. The old days of pitching in and helping out sort of go out the window whenever you look at your huge tax bill.
Go to any NY Realtor site and see what you pay to live there, and then they have to put up with this kind of criminal activity. It is similar to Detroit, and the last one out turn off the lights.
If people were paying less taxes, the nanny state couldnt do this. The people would get out their snow blowers and chip in. When you are forced to pay dearly for this service there is no incentive to help out. Why pay and have to do it yourself?
The more the govt promises, the less that gets done. This is the perfect example.
Fionnagh commented:
I guess this is what Obama meant about having skin in the game.
Ginger commented:
Does any one know the total population of New York?
Rock commented:
@ Oldpuppymax #35
Yep your correct, but in fairness other blogs on this same issue do. But hey about the only thing not union in N.Y. is the worlds oldest profession, and legally anyway, corrupt city officials.
Gini commented:
Ginger, it might be that those trucks are in need of repair. You are what CB8? Call them and ask or call 311 about it.
Chisum commented:
Ginger,
The state pop.
19,541,453 – Jul 2009
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Population Division
New York City population — 8,008,278
According to nyc.gov
theBuckWheat commented:
RICO anyone?
Ginger commented:
Chisum
Thank You….a lot of people feeling helpless.
Maybe Barry will come to their aide. hahahaha He wants people submisive.
Wheezer commented:
Chippy you should put huge signs all over those plows “The union at work”
Rock commented:
Should this not have been one of those shovel ready jobs Obama spoke of with such enthusiasm, or was Hawaii in dire need of shovels and snow plow operators? Oops forgot OB’s there and they may well be hip deep in BS
No Man commented:
That’s what you get for 100 years of government by the illegitimate offspring of “lobotomized chipmonks” and their liberal sisters.
Carbon Pootprint commented:
@Ladue Pundit
Well to be honest the last hostage takers were the New York Banks who threatened to blow us all up if we didn’t bail them out. Seems that attack happened in September too. bahhahaha
USAF 77-84 commented:
So Ginger, what was the cost of that protest. i’m not talking money. it was lives and injury. you civilians are dangerous, money is all that matters. time is money screw who gets hurt or killed. too many chiefs and enough indians. team work team work team work, practice safety safety safety, screw taking all the credit. the team takes the credit. thats why we thank the military as a whole and just one person. one line above should say too many chiefs and not enough indians. screw the how much money you make and get the job done. practice safety safety safety.
nohammernosickl commented:
Liberals don’t care about dead babies.
Mark S. commented:
Aaron, i was wondering the same thing.. how is that not “involuntary manslaughter”/”Criminal Homicide”/etc…. the only problem is, who do you charge with it?
But the New Yorkers will just whine for a day or two, then go right back to defending the clods who arranged this “strike action”.
USAF 77-84 commented:
Go to Flopping Aces and look at the tires on the front- end loader. take a pay cut and put the money into the eqipment.
martha commented:
Not the first time they’e done this. Back in the 1960′s we had a rough winter. They were pissed off at Mayor Lindsay and they went on strike right after a blizzard. The snow was just as bad as this one, but nothing got plowed. I was a kid in Brooklyn at the time. Think the union boss’s name at the time was Mike Quill.
USAF 77-84 commented:
Safety safety safety, teamwork teamwork teamwork, screw how much money you make.
Jerry C commented:
The mother will lose her lawsuit regardless of justice. Government controlled judges will rule that paramedics or police officiers are only required to protect & serve the government. It is the responsibility of individual citizens to take care of themselves. Either that or they will declare it an act of God and blame Him. Blame…blame…blame…and never any accountability.
Aaron Worthing commented:
mark S.
> the only problem is, who do you charge with it?
actually that isn’t tough. if this was a planned slowdown, the answer is ALL OF THEM, at least in theory. even if you are not sure which plowman failed this family, their problem is that if it is a conspiracy, then you get joint and several liability for all actions in furtherance of the conspiracy. that means all of them can be charged with negligent homicide, if not manslaughter.
But good question, dude. i think i will update my post with it.
USAF 77-84 commented:
NYC sanitation workers made 100,000 $ in 2009. no wonder why their eqipment sucks.
Bunni commented:
Lazy Gov’t workers in (in)action. The lawsuits will be flying as furiously as the snow. Bloomberg better watch it, he’s lucky he’s not up for election this year. Ineptitude in a blizzard brought down a mayor in Chicago, back in the day. This is criminal negligence and all those “workers” on call who did nothing should be FIRED. I feel very sad for the families who lost loved ones due this this.
RS commented:
Sounds like wrongful death lawsuits are in the union’s future.
Or should be.
USAF 77-84 commented:
Put all of them on trial for obeying unlawful orders.
squeaky commented:
i heard of one individual who suffered a stroke and suffered severe damage but can’t find out whether or not they would have been the mortality. one woman waited 30 hours for an ambulance after she broke an ankle. there will be more complaints for sure. an example of why you need leaders with the ability to think outside the box and anticipate…
and this item – a tax on run off water? what won’t they tax.
http://www.wtnh.com/dpp/news/new_haven_cty/proposing-a-storm-tax-to-pay-for-storm-water-runoff
Dave-O commented:
If people want Mayor Bloomberg to get serious about removing the snow from NYC – someone needs to tell him that the citizens are enjoying it.
Robert commented:
Bloomberg should use all the salt he took out of
those restaurant meals and put it on the roads.
Kilroy commented:
Put all of the union officials involved on trial for negligent homicide, if they are acquitted take them out and shoot them on general principle. Unions have outlived their entitlement to oxygen.
aprilnovember811 commented:
I once belonged to a union, my husband belongs to a union, but neither of us can stand them anymore. We are hoping one day at least the public sector unions will all be abolished. Neither of us care if the private sector unions are abolished either. There maybe was a time for them, but they are nothing but thug operations anymore. Their time has come and gone. All I think about when anyone says unions anymore is the fat slob Trumka, the SEIU, ACORN and Obama. The states need to file for bankruptcy and shut them down.
P.S. The mother of the baby who died needs to sue the union and Bloomberg, the Jihadist lover.
Picric commented:
If Law and Order was still on would they make this into a show?
Chisum commented:
If Law and Order was still on would they make this into a show?
Yes, and they would place all blame at the feet of The Tea Party.
mike191 commented:
Put a salty stake through Bloomberg-his political future is dead.
Gini commented:
#57
Then there’s the pay. 315 sanitation workers earned over $100,000 in 2009, according to SeeThroughNY. The top guy, John Doherty, earned $205,180.
315 out of thousands. That, of course, includes overtime and weekend work.
I’m not defending the Sanitation men, but they have a miserable job and for most of them it’s a step up the ladder; the best they are capable of doing.
Bloomberg should have declared State of Emergency and have cars towed off the streets before the blizzard got underway. That was the first of many mistakes.
squeaky commented:
Gini commented
[315 sanitation workers earned over $100,000 in 2009, according to SeeThroughNY. The top guy, John Doherty, earned $205,180.] what happens when people can’t consider the potential problems when implementing their “that’ll teach em’” slow down. bad move guys..
law of unintended consequences strikes again.
http://www.businessinsider.com/meet-the-hundreds-of-nyc-sanitation-workers-who-earn-over-100000-2010-12
Sheesh! commented:
Maybe we can put them in ‘rubber rooms’ with the NYC school teachers while they continue to collect their pay for doing nothing (Shoot! Did I write that? I shouldn’t give them any ideas.)
Sally commented:
I hate to say, but it was my first thought when this happened, and I fear it was ordered from the very top, if you know what I mean.
Pray for the well being of the courageous workers who told the truth on this. Many of us instinctively knew this was the game and, as said by many of the commenters, will possibly just be a small example of what they plan.
Let’s hope the extortion plans backlash on them and American/good union members push back and strip them of the power they want to be absolute.
ipso facto commented:
This is poetic justice for NYC on many levels.
First, in NYC, we can all now see that the people that take out the trash are themselves trash.
Second, this what you get in a Democratic utopia like NYC. This is EXACTLY what they wanted and now they should shut up and just accept it because this is exactly how things work out when the unions get in. They go so far as to practice a scortched earth policy that ends up even hurting themselves – ie DETROIT!
The union people know the City budget was unsustainable, however, they only want everybody else to cut back, not them. Those Socialist bastards are just as hostile towards the government as the rioters in France and England. Just wait and see what we get when the police start cutting back services when their pentioin bebefits are cut back.
This is all a testament to big government. Sanitation should be contracted out to private firms that have to compete with each other all over the city.
Lenore commented:
Some big lawsuits coming down the road with this screwup.
Lenore commented:
Picric, no they wouldn’t because they couldn’t avoid the union label. Now if they could some how blame this on white Christians, then yes they would make a show of it. Am I the only one who noticed the vast majority of the criminals in the show are white, Christian and or republican. Isn’t the show about N.Y. City?
Henry Hawkins commented:
As for me, I blame George W. Bush.
Rock commented:
Well now that car getting trashed by a city crew looks more like a deliberate act of vandalism seeing how it was a city owned vehicle. Your union thugs and tax dollars at work. Happy now New Yorkers you embraced these socialist loving steal your money A wipes. Please stay in your crime riddled city, you will find no sympathy for your pathetic clamoring for self abuse and hopeless misguided love of big government. Your mayor’s joined at the hip with the very scum who killed almost 3000 of your friends and neighbors and you keep his worthless regime in power.
darcy commented:
S U E
T H E
U N I O N S,
A N D
B L O O M B E R G,
W H I L E
Y O U’ R E
A T
I T..
Cobalt-Blue commented:
Hope Halloran gets to the bottom of this and skewers Bloomberg. Leave it to the Asatru Republican to get to the truth.
donh commented:
and Obama has the nerve to call republicans ‘hostage takers’ . Now we see who really holds the private citizen hostage for the payment of ransom.
Coldtype commented:
Funny how this “story” based soley on the unverified assertions of three anonymous sources fails to mention that the true reason for the slow response was due to staff cuts.
bg commented:
++
bottom line:
the buck stops with the billionaire..
==
Gini commented:
#83 December 31, 2010 at 12:15 am
Coldtype commented:
Funny how this “story” based soley on the unverified assertions of three anonymous sources fails to mention that the true reason for the slow response was due to staff cuts.
Amen, Coldtype, Amen!
My area of Manhattan [Turtle Bay] was cleared quite promptly. It is, as always, the boroughs that are problems. Cars all over the roads, hills, curves, less experienced workers, etc.
As Katrina was Bushs’ fault, why isn’t this blizzard Obamas fault?