"That guy sitting on the back of a garbage truck--is he getting more productive? Probably not..." Colin Read, Mayor Plattsburgh, Dec. 15, 2017In that infamous hot mic video (the money quote is around 9:35 on the link), the mayor and Councilor Mike Kelly muse all intellectual-like on whether public workers, with their cost of living increases and unions and junk, are really as "efficient" as their private-sector brethren, and whether labor without optimal financial efficiency is "sustainable."
Propublica.com produced some data points on that one last week.
So, yes, the private sector in this case is far more efficient, if your metric is killing cyclists, pedestrians and workers. Defining sustainability depends on what you actually want to sustain: your money, or someone else's life.In New York City overall, private sanitation trucks killed seven people in 2017. By contrast, city municipal sanitation trucks haven’t caused a fatality since 2014.Pedestrians aren’t the only casualties, and Action isn’t the only company involved in fatalities. Waste and recycling work is the fifth most fatal job in America — far more deadly than serving as a police officer or a firefighter.
