Wednesday, March 25, 2020

Coronavirus: Pittsburg Sanitation Workers Push Back

As I mentioned in a post last week, when we return to some sense of normalcy, there will be a new normal as they say. Great shocks as we are experiencing with the coronavirus have equally great impacts on consciousness. Here in the US in particular, the ineptness of the regime and inability of the so-called free market to respond sufficiently to the worst global crisis since World War Two, will no go unnoticed. There will be serious political consequences as time passes and actions like this reported on here will intensify. The failures will be seen and felt and it will not be easy after the state steps in to provide what are basic improvements (sick leave) etc. to go back. This sort of resistance will spread. From KDKA Pittsburg via We Do The Work



 PITTSBURGH (KDKA) – Garbage could be piling up across the city of Pittsburgh as sanitation workers refused to report for work on Wednesday morning.

Some of them said they are not being given enough protective gear as the coronavirus continues to spread through the area.

The parking lot of the city’s sanitation building was packed with men and women who are usually out on trucks.

They have a list of demands for the city before they continue their work.

“I say if we don’t pick up your rubbish, what’re you going to do with it?” Asked Pittsburgh Environmental Services employee Tom Foley.

Emotions ran high as dozens of sanitation workers for the city refused to go to work on Wednesday.
“We are risking our lives, we could be contaminated as well,” said Sheldon White.
Deemed essential services during the statewide shutdown, White said the least the city could do is give the workers the protection they need to do their jobs.

“We want better equipment, better protective gear, we have no masks,” he explained. “We want hazard pay.”

Their concerns over the spreading coronavirus continue to rise. Foley said one of the worker’s wife is quarantined and they were never notified.

“There’s several people here who are diabetic, including myself, so if I catch this I could die,” Foley said. “There’s a bunch of people, how many of you are diabetic?”

As the workers wait for answers, they’re looking to Mayor Bill Peduto who said the trash will always be picked up.

KDKA is awaiting a statement from Mayor Peduto.

After nearly two hours, the workers were sent home with pay as their union representatives talked about what comes next.

Workers were told report back tomorrow morning at 5:30 a.m.

KDKA’s Nicole Ford is working to learn more.

5 comments:

Paul said...

This article states that this pandemic is "the worst global crisis since World War Two".
Actually I don't believe that is accurate. The crisis of global warming and the crisis of the loss of the understanding of God and the eternal fight between good and evil is also equally a crisis. We are dealing with actually a triple crisis. As long as we deal with this crisis as just a single crisis, we will never win. The most important thing in all this is to keep our spirits up; we are human beings who love each other, damn it, and nobody can take that away from us.

Paul said...

In the second global crisis I mentioned, I should have more accurately said the devastation to our natural environments and ecosystems in general, not just global warming. We absolutely must learn to live more sustainably with the Earth as the indigenous people have been telling us. These last two global crises have been largely ignored by the global elites with questionable motivations, and the pandemic global crisis amped up beyond belief. However, I know whats up.

Richard Mellor said...

Sounds very rational until you drag Christian mythology and feelings about good and evil in to it.

Paul said...

I did not mean to drag in the traditionally understood paradigm of Christian mythology but a more modern, amended version of the Christian paradigm that combines Christianity with the Muslim religion as shown in the book of Quran and also principles of sustainability such as practiced by Indigenous people to arrive at a more cohesive understanding of the higher powers s

Paul said...

My point is I believe there is not just 1 global crisis but 3: (1) the pandemic, (2) environmental destruction, (3) lack of spiritual understanding and/or understanding of morality or good and evil by the current American civilization and culture. It was said socialism cannot arrive until mankind becomes more civilized.