Today it was revealed that trash collectors (City of Chicago employees) are cheating taxpayers. An inspector’s report of an investigation revealed that about 25% of trash collectors’ time is spent doing absolutely nothing. Ten weeks of surveillance showed:
Laborers and truck drivers whose movements were eyeballed and tracked by undercover investigators were found to be in bars and restaurants, relaxing at home, sitting in their cars or standing around drinking and, in one case, urinating on the street when they were supposed to be hard at work.
With garbage collection crews actually working an average of about 6 hours a day (instead of the 8 hours assigned), about $14 million in wages is wasted. Add benefits, and the total cost of loafing is $21 million a year.
Union officials claim this investigation was a witch hunt:
Lou Phillips, business manager for Laborers Union Local 1001, said it’s no accident that Hoffman issued his report at a time when hundreds of laborers are targeted for layoffs to ease a budget crunch.
“Sounds a little bit like a witch hunt to me. They’re laying off 1,080 people. Over 300 are members of Local 1001. Read between the lines,” he said. “It could be a downed truck. It could be between loads. There’s a number of different situations” that could cause down time.
Yeah, what a witch hunt. Newsflash for the union: If the employees weren’t stealing time and money from taxpayers, there would be nothing for the inspector to report. If they were doing their jobs, and investigation like this wouldn’t be necessary, and wouldn’t find any wrongdoing.
And with results like this, the garbage crews deserve to have 300 workers laid off.
Mayor Richard Daley says he’s committed to pursuing this issues, and deems what’s happening to be criminal activity. He says he’s going to try to get those who are guilty of not doing their jobs and engaging in criminal activity like drinking on the job to be fired.
It’s nice to see that Milwaukee isn’t the only city with workers who steal from taxpayers. Let’s just be honest: Jobs like these pay well and are often cushier than those in the private sector. There is no excuse for the employees to be taking advantage of taxpayer funds, but it’s not uncommon. For years we (taxpayers) have allowed government employees to take advantage of us with good pay, astronomical benefits, and lack of real job performance standards.
It’s time to stand up. Every year, our government officials reach further into our pockets and take more money away from our families. Enough is enough.
