Kevin and Jay Collecting Yard Refuse
I’m re-posting this article from 2013. Things have changed in the last 6 years and I thought I’d revisit what I was writing then. I found that what I wrote then is still pertinent. My new comments are at the end.
A couple of days ago I was taking my trash out when the garbage truck pulled up. It’s getting towards the end of the lawn cleaning season, before winter settles in. They were picking up the last lawn refuse. I grabbed my camera and walked with them as they went down the alley. This is what I learned.
Kevin, Jay and a third man who was driving the truck had been on the route since 6 a.m. and now it was mid-morning. The truck was almost full, meaning that it was carrying about 9 tons of waste. Because they were picking up bagged lawn debris they couldn’t use the truck’s hydraulic lifts and had to to manually lift and throw them into truck’s maw.
The bags have a 30-gallon capacity and their weight can vary dramatically due to what is stuffed into them. A hazard to their backs.
Kevin and Jay hustled all the way. Moving at a brisk walk they formed a two-man swarm that efficiently attacked each pile of bags. The lighter bags they threw and the heavier ones they dragged over to the truck and heaved them in. It was strenuous work. They would continue until about 6 p.m.
Kevin proudly told me that he was a partial owner in the truck and collection license.
They’ll be back in a week for regular service and perhaps I’ll be able to pick up our conversation then.
We see these folks every day, driving their humpbacked trucks and picking up our trash. We include them into our busy routines without thinking about it. We separate recyclables from the trash and make certain that everything is ready for pick up on scheduled days. During the spring, summer and fall we bundle our lawn waste in proscribed ways so that it can be removed and later mulched. On certain days, we put out old furniture and appliances out so that they can be hauled away and recycled.
Yet, what do we really know about these invisible people who are the muscle and blood of modern life? It turns out, very little.
When I Was a Kid
At Christmas time, my mother would prepare a series of envelopes with a card and some money. These were for the invisible people who made our world better: newspaper boy, mailman, and the garbage man. My mother knew each of them by name and would talk to them when they came by. They were working people and they were respected in our house.
My folks believed that there was nobility in work. It didn’t matter what you did, so long as you tried your best, your work was important and deserved respect. If mother caught me slacking off or complaining about chores she would remind me of the garbage men and how their work required heavy lifting, working in all kinds of weather, and dealing with other folks waste. It was their job and they excelled at it without complaining.
My folks taught me that, inherent in the idea of respecting work, was the idea of equality. If I worked I was the equal to any other man regardless of their job, wealth or importance. I believe that still.
Today
Today, the idea of egalitarianism born of work is derided and ridiculed. We live in a country that glorifies wealth and derides work. The people who hold our society together, the garbage men, mailmen, police, firemen, teachers, municipal workers and the vast numbers in the services industries are poorly paid and abused by the rest of society.
We have become a country of moneyed elites whose main goal appears to be to denigrate the rest of society while amassing vast wealth and power. Since when is the life of a hedge fund manager or banker more precious than that of a fireman or highway worker or teacher or a garbage man?
2019 – Winds of Change
Now in 2019, things are changing dramatically. People across the nation are beginning to resurrect the idea that cooperative action is necessary to improve our lot and the health of the nation. There are old biases that need discarding. One such bias is the snobbery some people who equate prestigious educations and having a Profession as a reason to feel more important than those with technical training, community college educations, or mastering a craft by self-educated. Working with your brain is somehow better than working with your hands. In return many people feel a bias against higher education as a sign of Elitist value. We have been divided into two suspicious camps.
In the last few decades we have learned differently. The fragmentation of workers into classes, Blue Collar and White, has reinforced these prejudices. All to the benefit of a small Elite and to the detriment of the the rest of us who keep this country afloat.
But that is changing. White Collar workers are discovering that they are like every other worker whether they use their hands and backs, teach our children, protect our lives and property. Just like the people who clean our hotels and homes, maintain our yards, and harvest our food. Folks with college degrees are coming to realize that they work in White Collar Sweatshops.
Years ago, when I worked as a technical writer, I was in the heart of white collar exploitation. Occasionally I’d bring up the idea that a Union could champion our demand for economic respect. This was always laughed off as just another crazy lefty idea from me, The Grouser. They thought having a salary was better than an hourly wage. We had steady incomes while laborers where paid for the time of their effort.
White Collar folk work until the job was done, no matter how many hours it takes. It’s expected. For decades I worked 50+ hours a week, burned up Saturdays, spent my own money to learn new skills that made me more productive and creative. I benefited from learning new skills, but so did the company. And all the time my salary languished. The big con was Stock Options. It was a form of Mr. Wimpy’s “I’d gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today.” Options were worthless script, IOUs, that would only be paid if the company grew and prospered for its investors. It all depended on the leadership of the company. No matter what we’d do, it was out of our hands. We accepted it like the old gold miners who dreamed of finding the Mother Load. History shows us that for every miner who struck it rich, there were 1,000s who got little or nothing.
White Collar workers are coming to realize what Blue Collars have known for centuries, you can’t trust the Company because its purpose is to make money for other people. Labor is never paid what it’s worth, it would cut into the profits. Short-term planning was and is used to pump up stock values and justifying squeezing labor and suppliers more and more. If there are a few bad quarters, workers are discarded.
Today some companies are creating better work environments and paying better. But, in most cases, it’s a financial motivation the drives change. When today’s current labor shortages end or companies think that they’ve hit a rough spot, the old habits will re-emerge. That’s how our economy is set up now.
But the Winds of Change are here. People who work and create things, most Americans, are fed up with getting shafted.
Kentucky miners have found that the Coal Companies aren’t expanding production or increasing wages. Instead they have withheld pensions and not paying back wages. The Elite use bankruptcy to dump debt and escape their responsibility to previous agreements. The process, stiff the miners, suppliers and the local communities. In most states, bankruptcy gets the companies off the hook of paying for their pollution cleanup, contamination of freshwater sources, and restoring what has been destroyed.
Over the last few years there has been a growing resistance. Teachers, miners and recently white collar engineers and software writers are organizing to fight the status quo. Reasons vary, pay equity, living wages, workplace safety, fighting climate change, and respect for their contribution to the economic well-being of the U.S.A. and the world. Labor is returning. Our fractured people are reconnecting to protect themselves from the greed of the Elite.
It is time that we restore the value that all work is worthy of respect and a living wage.
