Peekskill garbage man seriously injured in fall from moving truck

[1210671 10]

1. Why the dig at UNIONS, and what makes you think cars park any differently in Peekskill then they do in NYC? A hard working individual passed away as a result of an accident on his job, keep the thread going to offer condolences or suggestions and keep the insults to yourself.
   

[61MACKBR1 222]

No disrespect to the tragic loss of the worker in Peekskill. The job is a very dangerous one and to which the loss of his life can never be replaced. I was just posting about the fact that the union contracts have verbage written into it that prohibits automated trucks in some cities (yes, I know this as a fact as I am in the Safety Equipment Industry)

As soon as I saw these two words, all written in caps, I stopped reading this post. I'm guessing this emphasis was placed as a negative connotation, and quite frankly to insert that onto what has become a Remembrance Thread of a Unionized Worker, is disgraceful.

Rest in Peace Brother Union Member.

[ny10570 745]

Bottom Line is that many communities, especially out in the Southwest and Southern States, are going more towards using Automated Side Loading Garbage Trucks (1 man operations), used on Residential Routes, as a measure of safety and efficiency. Yes, these kind of trucks have a large upfront costs, but only having 1 individual covering a route, rather than 2, 3 or sometimes 4, decreases the overall overhead significantly (Thus saving taxpayers a tremendous amount of long term costs)

Why we don't see many automated trucks in the Northeast and other major cities in the country (Chicago, Detriot, etc) is because of a number of reason, such as:

1) it is written in the UNION CONTRACT that routes are to be covered by a certain number of men, and the union will simply not allow for Automated Trucks to take over operations at the cost of losing union members on the job

2) Cities are simply reluctant to put up the significant upfront costs to equip their cities with Automated Side Loading Refuse Collection Vehicles

3) Cities like New York City, with the way cars are parked on the streets, cannot use Automated Side Loading Refuse Equipment Vehicles

HOWEVER, if you look at areas such as municipalities outside of Phoenix Arizona and down in Texas, you almost never see Rear Loading Refuse Collection Vehicles on Residential Routes (You see more Front Loading Trucks on Commercial Routes and some Rear Loaders doing Industrial Routes). For some of the rural areas up the Northeast that are handled directly by municipalities, for Residential Routes, Automated Side Loading Equipment could work, but again you have the upfront costs and the most likely fight with the Sanitation Workers Unions that to most local governments is just not worth the fight.

Absolutely unions frequently include minimum staffing levels and NYC Sanitation is one example. However NYC Sanitation is not the only ones hauling garbage in NYC. In fact throughout the tri state most communities are covered by commercial haulers. If single man operations were actually more cost effective commercial haulers would have embraced them. Blame unions all you want, but the free market does not substantiate your claim that unions are preventing their implementation.

Cities don't want to put up the initial cost because they will not recoup their investment. Savings made by smaller crews are cut into by slower operations, more expensive vehicles, more expensive maintenance, and maintaining the refuse containers.

So the unions are at fault yet, you admit the trucks simply will not work in many cities?

[BFD1054 1,552]

As soon as I saw these two words, all written in caps, I stopped reading this post. I'm guessing this emphasis was placed as a negative connotation, and quite frankly to insert that onto what has become a Remembrance Thread of a Unionized Worker, is disgraceful.

Rest in Peace Brother Union Member.

Capt, as always bro, you are spot on. Its just easier for many folks to blame Unions.

1. Why the dig at UNIONS, and what makes you think cars park any differently in Peekskill then they do in NYC? A hard working individual passed away as a result of an accident on his job, keep the thread going to offer condolences or suggestions and keep the insults to yourself.
   

1210671...THANK YOU!

Moderators, is there any way we could possibly split this thread? A man, a human being, has died during the course of his job. It was a terrible tragedy and just plain sucks.

Can we keep a thread as a condolence page possibly?

Guys and gals, you wanna talk semantics or knock the Unions as some of you insist on doing? Lets have some more class and keep it seperate, ok?

There are soooo many things i want to talk about, clear up and give my thoughts on. However, this is a public forum and i must be careful as this is my job.

I just love how everybody has become Sanitation experts and feel they know what should be done in every community. I do this for a LIVING, it is my CAREER and has been for over 9 years now.

I said it earlier, it is a dangerous job and if its one you havent done, you have no clue as to what its all about.

Firefighting is a dangerous job. Are some of you going to start blaming the Unions the next time a Fireman is injured or killed on the job? Should we tell Fireman that they are no longer allowed to enter a burning building because its unsafe? Of course not, that would be absurd.

Again, RIP to my fellow Teamster. Thoughts and prayers are with his family, friends and the Peekskill community.