Slow NYC Cleanup Is Union Protest: Report

Sanitation bosses allegedly ordered crews to 'make the mayor pay'
By John Johnson,  Newser Staff
Posted Dec 30, 2010 11:38 AM CST
Slow NYC Cleanup Is Union Protest: Report
A Sanitation Dept. plow truck is stuck on West 16th St. in the Coney Island neighborhood of Brooklyn Tuesday.   (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)

If this proves true, there's going to be a lot of outraged New Yorkers: The New York Post reports that Sanitation Department bosses ordered workers to slow down snow cleanup as a budget protest. Among the tactics: keeping plow blades high and skipping some streets entirely, says the Post. It quotes a city councilman who says he met with three department workers who told him of the strategy.

"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," says Councilman Dan Halloran. Scores of emergency vehicles have been unable to get around the city because of the clogged streets, with the most high-profile victim being a newborn who died. (More New York City stories.)

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