Due to the Teamster’s strike, there’s a good chance that the city won’t be picking up garbage and recycling tomorrow in Wallingford. Nonetheless, the city instructs that you put your bins out, presumably on the off chance that an agreement is reached:
Friday Waste Management customers should still put their garbage, yard waste and recycling out before 7 a.m. tomorrow [Friday]. If collections are missed, carts should be put out next Friday, Aug. 3.
If pickup is missed tomorrow, there will be no charge for extra bags and bins the following week.
I had no idea they were making about a 100K per year. Where do I sign up?
jeepers, me too
Not me.
Be aware that it’s physically demanding, skilled labor. I don’t know you two (probably), but statistically, it might not be a career path that’s open to you.
True, you could easily get people to do it for less, but those trucks are really big. In the end it’s probably cheaper than paying for the scraped up cars.
So is being a teacher, but they don’t make half that. Too bad.
We more worried about damage to cars. Kids bounce back, car you got to spend money to get fixed.
Check it out and see if you could drive a recycling truck:
http://jobs.wm.com/job/Seattle-Residential-Recycle-Driver-Job-WA-98101/2047998/
@Ryan & milly: Y’all are doing exactly what Waste Management wants you to do – focusing on that $98K figure. That $98K is both wages *and* benefits, so you need to knock at minimum of 1/3 off that to measure financial compensation.
Trash drivers make $26/hour; recycling drivers make $17. At a full 2080 hours per year, that’s about $54K for trash and about $35K for recycling, before taxes and contributions to benefits.
That doesn’t sound overpaid to me.
@8 Agreed, and thank you for providing these calculations…makes the story a lot clearer.
it´s still truck driving..
many people make less
beginning teachers make less
Wow. Did you even *read* the job description?
“Residential/Recycle Drivers are responsible for the collection and hand loading of residential waste/recyclables as well as the transporting of this waste/recyclables by a front-load or rear-load truck to a transfer station, landfill site, or a materials recycling facility. They must constantly lift, push, and pull receptacles that weigh from 50 to 75 pounds as part of their rigorous daily routine. Often, these waste receptacles have no wheels or handles for maneuverability, and the driver must have the physical strength to adjust accordingly. This physically strenuous position involves mounting and dismounting the truck between 800 and 1000 times every shift. In addition to these duties, vehicle inspection is required.”
It’s *not* just truck driving. Would you do all that for $35K/yr? After getting a Commercial Drivers License out of your own pocket?
I’d like to see teachers earn more, but for me, that’s a separate issue.
Looking at the information from the job description for the drivers, $35K/year kinda seems to fall short for the labor involved.
Actually, I’d be interested in a more reasonable comparison, say, the compensation of residential/recycle drivers compared with that of dock workers, or others who perform similar driving and lifting tasks. Thoughts, anybody?
My thoughts are that I just want my damn garbage picked up.
Why the discrepency between recyling and garbage drivers? Is it simply because they pick up half as often?
@Andy: They drive as much as the trash guys. Closing or reducing that gap is a factor in the strike.
This is hard and dangerous work. Drivers do die on the job and wrestling these trucks up our narrow and often hilly streets is not an easy job, nor is it just truck driving. Every few feet you have to get out and empty the containers, and as we all know they can be very heavy and are often filled with things that none of us want to see more or less touch. They are also timed in their work, given just so much time to complete their routes.
The difference in compensation comes from the fact that when curbside recycling started rates were not set by the State utility commission, they did set the rates for garbage, and in those days there was more garbage. Today there is more recycling and yard waste and less garbage.
I don’t think that anyone would disagree that teachers should be paid more, or for that matter all workers that provide essential services. But that fact does not diminish the importance of the work that refuse drivers do. When it happens weekly we don’t think about how its picked up and disposed of. We don’t think about the workers in all kinds of weather making that happen. But when they go on strike our reactions are entirely different, only then do we recognize the work as the essential service that it is. We need to support them. Waste Management is not a poor company and can afford to meet the drivers demands. Allied Waste, the other company in the region has already done that and they are smaller. Waste Management can do it to.
Thanks for the explanation, Leonard. I figured it was something like that, but hadn’t found a reason.
It’s difficult for me to put value on the “this is a hard job” argument when there are many many people out there that would make similar claims. I’m amazed, for example, at how little day care workers are paid, how much they put up with, and how much responsibility they have.
What has more weight is this nonsensical difference in compensation between recycling and garbage.
I am still sore at going for an entire month without recycling pickup last winter however. Imagine, if they go to every two weeks for garbage …
Next up: the Yard Waste guys. You know that huge influx of filthy flies piling into our urban homes? The same homes that never needed screens in the past? Surely you’ve noticed the tons of maggots living inside your compostable bin! How’d you like to be opening up a city’s worth of those cans after they’ve sat a week in the sunshine?!
btw, it’s worth checking into the amount of guaranteed overtime that goes along with those “low-wage” jobs. Same for the rates you pay for certain city employees.
Comp is comp guys. If your health insurance is worth 9K a year, it is part of your comp. I know I’m lucky its part of mine. Otherwise you would be paying for it, or not having it at all. And I think you guys are forgetting about overtime.
And as for underpaid for a nasty dangerous job – are you kidding me? I was not even paid that much spending a decade serving this country. Give me a break. What do our cops make per year? How about teachers? I dont see them going on strike.
I am just calling attention to the fact that a group of employees is making great money and are refusing to work we have people who work far harder, do more for society, and make far less.
I think its ridiculous.
@Ryan: I’m willing to bet that the ZOMG!$98K! crowd doesn’t think of their benefits as part of their compensation package. In this case, we’re talking about guys being paid $35K/yr who are doing the same job as guys being paid $54K/yr, and don’t think that’s fair. They’re the ones striking. The guys making $54K think the $35K guys are justified, and are honoring the picket line.
$35K isn’t ‘great money.’ It isn’t terrible money, but it’s decent. It’s under the median family income in the US, in an area that costs well above median – and it doesn’t come with VA or GI Bill benefits, either. Current Federal pay scale would make that between GS-7 and 8. This isn’t someone who’s getting rich off the system.
Cops? Recruits in Seattle earn $25/hr *while in the training academy*. They make more, with better benefits. Teachers do start lower. Bottom of the scale is $33K/yr , but jumps to $40K with a masters (starting salary). They can definitely make more, with better benefits.
And so what about overtime? That just means it’s cheaper for WM to work fewer guys longer than pay more guys a decent wage plus benefits.