You know, now that the waste disposal strike is over and the garbage can be hauled away, we have to ask ourselves what this really means. The Teamsters went on strike, presumably, because of their lack of a contract. But they stayed on strike until they got pay hikes of 30 percent, among other great benefits.
Labor unions started out for an honorable purpose, to uniformly protect workers against being taken advantage of by their employers.
This most recent strike, however, is an abomination of that principle.
In the end, we are talking about people who already make a very good living with very little investment. We are talking about a group of self-centered people who tried to hold northeast Illinois hostage in order to get more than they really deserve.
In the end, this is trash pickup. That’s it. Wages amount to more than $50,000 per year for people who might have high school diplomas. I work in the public sector for just more than $40,000, and I have more than $100,000 in educational debts.
So tell me, why do garbage workers deserve this? Because they can. Because they teamed up and extorted it out of the companies and municipalities by taking a vacation and letting the waste pile up on the streets with no concern for anybody else but themselves.
Maybe our communities will rethink whether doing business with the Teamsters is in the public’s best interest. After all, we’re the ones who are going to have to pay their higher salaries now.
