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Sanitation Department's slow snow clean-up was a budget protest

danarhea said:
Does it need to be investigated? Of course it does. You heard it from me, an unnamed city worker.... Oops, I just let the cat out of the bag. It was me who blew the whistle on workers in New York, and I did it all the way from Houston. Yeah, I know, I know, you are going to call me a liar. Well, maybe I am. Maybe so is someone else. How do YOU know it was a city worker, and not some political hack? Did the city workers stand up, give their names, and take responsibility for making the accusation? Nope. All we have at this point is the word of a Republican alderman who has a political axe to grind. But, in these days of yellow journalism, that's good enough for yellow journalists. So they can take my word for it. I explicity say that it is true that I am the one who leaked this story to the alderman making the accusation.

** DanaRhea crosses his fingers behind his back**

:mrgreen:
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IOW, they were just doing as they were told? That's a defense, now?
 
Friend's husband is a midlevel sanitation worker and said that there was absolutely a coordinated slowdown. Believe it or not.
 
rebelbuc said:
The New York Post link is here!

Is there any question that the behavior alleged by this article is criminal? In addition to protesting budget cuts by ignoring their responsibilities, the sanitation workers' bosses set the stage to pad overtime for employees.

I am particularly disturbed by the New York Post's labeling of the whistleblowers as "snitches". It is interesting how they preceded the councilman's quote with the label of "snitch". Upon a quick glance, it looks like Councilman Dan Halloran defined them as snitches. However, it was the Post writer who used that term. See the quote below:
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This story is nothing more than a right wing hoax.

Snow Job: When “Conservative Journalism” Is Just Purposeful Propaganda | Media Matters for America


The charge was negligent homicide.

Incensed by a New York Post "exclusive" last winter about "arrogant" union sanitation workers who purposefully failed to plow local streets in the aftermath of a crippling blizzard in order to protest department budget cuts, some members of the GOP Noise Machine, having whipped themselves into a union-hating frenzy, suggested the worker were actually guilty of criminal misconduct.

The Post's plow story, which was thoroughly debunked by a just-completed city investigation, and which the right-wing media now remain universally silent about, presents us with a depressing case study of how so-called "conservative journalism" often works today. (And especially how Rupert Murdoch-bankrolled journalism works.)
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It is clear to this Councilman that this is a case that points out the failings people like Sanitation Department bosses and the City Council.

The Sanitation Department bosses should have been fired the minute it became public ans the Union dissolved.

One of the greatest things President Reagan did was fire the Air Traffic Controllers.

Public safety has got to be first and foremost every time and for anyone or group to interfere with that or put people in jeopardy, as I see it they have forfeit their jobs and rights to form or belong to a union.

I don't believe any group that has public safety as any part of their job description have the right to strike real or perceived, blue flu, call it what you will.
 
MrVicchio said:
Because, as we are all aware, if it's from a Media Matter's Blog, it's just GOTTA be true!

:roll:
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I am so glad you recognized that MrV.

If you read deeper, you would have realized that was NYC's Department of Investigations that determined there was no slowdown. Media Matters just reporting the facts as they happen.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/04/nyregion/no-slowdown-in-blizzard-cleanup-nyc-report-says.html


Late last December, a councilman from Queens inflamed the frustrations of many New Yorkers upset with the pace of snow removal after a blizzard when he claimed to have evidence that city sanitation workers had intentionally slowed the cleanup.

The councilman, Daniel J. Halloran, became something of a national news celebrity for a more than week. Commentators said his evidence showed how public employee unions were harming America.

But on Friday, a report by the city’s Department of Investigation said that investigators, after interviewing more than 150 witnesses and reviewing video from surveillance cameras and from angry residents, had found no evidence of an organized slowdown. In fact, the report found, Mr. Halloran had no evidence for his accusation, and his account of conversations with two workers differed sharply from what the workers told investigators.

“In toto,” the report said, “Mr. Halloran’s information about city employee statements contributed no actual evidence about a possible slowdown.”
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