Chris Martin, president of the Seattle trash-collection company CleanScapes, says he was being a good corporate citizen when he offered to have his crews clean Westlake Park -- free of chargeThe Mayor's office welcomes CleanScapes' parks offer, but the company's earlier offer to snowplow streets last winter in exchange for an extension of its trash-collection contract did not go over well. Per a transportation department internal e-mail:
...
But union officials representing the city's parks-maintenance workers didn't see Martin's offer as a goodwill gesture. They considered it an attempt to privatize city services and eliminate the union jobs of laborers responsible for downtown parks.
"CleanScapes is inching their way into several Departments' and unions' work and there are battles happening around this type of 'volunteer' work. ... Will need a hold on this until we get some input from City Labor Relations."Cost-effective service delivery be damned. It's unacceptable to infringe on the unions' collective "
The purpose of govt. is not to provide certain jobs to certain people; it is to serve the taxpayers in the most efficient, effective way possible. Most Seattle politicians have lost all sight of that kind of common sense.
Perhaps the public employees are afraid that the private workers will do a better job!
Posted by: Monterey on April 19, 2011 05:20 PMThey have every reason to be afraid. My experience, from being FORCED to belong to TWO unions in my life, is that union labor is LAZY. Of course not all of them, but the incentive to do the bare minimum is definitely there.
Posted by: bastiat fan on April 19, 2011 05:49 PM... but the company's earlier offer to snowplow streets last winter in exchange for an extension of its trash-collection contract did not go over well.
Such behavior was part of an overall scam:
The union points to a pattern of CleanScapes offering to donate to the city services such as snow removal and the deployment of speed-watch trailers, without public notice or bids.
This, of course, is the real purpose of CleanScapes' offers: to circumvent the public-bidding process, a process which exists to prevent corruption in awarding of government contracts. I hope CleanScapes is now barred from bidding on government contracts for an appropriate period of time.
(Of course, we already know how much this site loves a union-busting-wannabe governor who also ladles out huge greasy slabs of pork to a drunken legacy crony.)
I'll be at a public park on Earth Day (Saturday), improving it for free. And sleazy government profiteers like CleanScapes will get none of the credit for my actual volunteering. See you there, fellow civic-minded folks!
Posted by: tensor on April 19, 2011 09:47 PMActually, they thank us for completing, in one day, a major project they would have needed months to perform. (We don't do the daily maintenance, because the employees already do that; we horde of volunteers tackle big, one-off "sweeps" of neglected areas.)
Again, the difference here is between the actual volunteer efforts of interested local citizens, and the sleazy attempt by a profiteering company to circumvent a public anti-corruption law. See you at the park!
Posted by: tensor on April 19, 2011 10:11 PMPeople want to help out. Unions say, no way.
Posted by: Jeff B. on April 20, 2011 09:28 AM"At the union's request, the city agreed not to accept CleanScapes services at Westlake Park."
So now unions determine city policy? No wonder Seattle is such a cesspool of brain-dead liberalism.
Posted by: FurryGuyJeans on April 20, 2011 07:46 PMhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f8qFvo2qJOU
Posted by: Difranco on April 21, 2011 06:57 AMMy family and I cut the weeds and paid to cut the grass. The next week a Vancouver Policeman was at the door and told us, if we ever touched that area again, we would be arrested. As we were depriving city workers of their jobs, by doing their job for them.
That and a bit more, created a situation where I closed my business there and returned to the USA, where for 40 years I could wait for Seattle to become Vancouver, Canada. A great step forward for city unions and another step back for those who just want a nicer place to live.
Posted by: Sam C on April 23, 2011 12:39 PMMy family and I cut the weeds and paid to cut the grass. The next week a Vancouver Policeman was at the door and told us, if we ever touched that area again, we would be arrested. As we were depriving city workers of their jobs, by doing their job for them.
That and a bit more, created a situation where I closed my business there and returned to the USA, where for 40 years I could wait for Seattle to become Vancouver, Canada. A great step forward for city unions and another step back for those who just want a nicer place to live.
Posted by: Sam C on April 23, 2011 12:39 PM