Saturday, October 24, 2009

Stint Work - Smart Move or Jerk Move?

Kingston Mayor James Sottile has made a big splash with his latest move - to discontinue "stint work shifts" among City sanitation workers as of November 1

“Stint work shifts” allow those workers to leave work early if their tasks are completed but still get paid in full.

Let's examine this a little deeper.

A good leader always knows history. DID THE MAYOR CHECK TO SEE WHAT THE ORIGIN OF THE "STINT WORK SHIFT" WAS?


Everything in a contract evolves from a previous situation. I would BET that the origin of the "stint work shift" was the following:

COMPLAINING BUSINESS OWNERS.

In short, it most likely was the business community who screamed at a previous Mayor to get those smelly, large, dirty, obnoxious GARBAGE TRUCKS AWAY FROM MY BUSINESS DURING PEAK BUSINESS HOURS. It doesn't go well with lunch or my pretty little boutique. The trucks also make for a nice CLOG in front of our stores between 12 noon and 4pm.

I can hear them screaming right now in my time machine, "Oh, Mr. Previous Mayor - can you not do something to get those dirty trucks and dirty men away from our customers, parking spaces and buildings? YOU ARE COSTING MY BUSINESS MONEY!"


Have no fear business people - Mr. Previous Mayor has a solution. I will get those dirty men and smelly trucks off of the street before it can effect your business.

I will make them a deal, start early, hustle your ass, finish up and beat it.
Case solved.


Until 2009 that is.

Mayor Sottile has now decided that those days are over and has even been quoted saying that, “It just doesn’t make sense.”

This should be good. I just hope that they don't forget to wash up before lunch. Maybe now they can even dine in one of those fine restaurants with the rest of the lunch crowd.

Know history or you are doomed to repeat it.

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

Greetings bullhorner, you hit the mark on the stint issue in kingston. Those big smelly trucks are usually out of the way before noon time and now we will be dealing with that issue among others. Is this also part of the new superintendent Schupp's plan to "restructure'? LOL The Mayor and Shupp have thier head up thier asses on this one.

Anonymous said...

I vote for Jerk move.
There are also safety concerns with the trash guys going full day.
During the summer they need to beat the heat.
During the winter they want to get it all picked up before its covered with snow/ice and weighs a ton, or gets covered over and unseen leaving a hazard for people walking down the street.
I know for a fact, these guys bust their butts getting the trash up, and why not give them an incentive to get it done faster!

Anonymous said...

Mayor McCheese has been trying since he became Mayor to get rid of "stint." Steve Gorsline and then Asst. Superintendent Sanitation Ed Boyle flatly refused to get rid of stint. In Gorsline's own words "Its the only job I know that will get done."

Steve, Ed, and Mayor Gallo all knew the advantages of "stint"

Mike Schupp and Ed Sweeney and Mayor McCheese never worked stint a day in there life.

Good Luck explaining to Mayor McCheese when the trash is left on the street and Ed and Mike are picking it up themselves.

Anonymous said...

So let me get this right. The October 31st you can do the route in 4-5 hours and November 1st it takes you 8-9?

You're going to pretend that the taxpayers wont notice that the crews are purposely dragging their duties to cause discomfort to the taxpayers?

How is it that I hear on a daily basis that we don't have enough DPW employees to get all that needs to be done accomplished? And yet we have members going home early?

Ask any resident if they think more could be done on the block that they live on? Spend a few hours with the patch crew or catch up with the brush/leaf collection for heaven's sake.

We all have to do more with less. Getting a full days pay for 4 hours wont cut it anymore.

Anonymous said...

Bullhorner you are right on the money with this. The Mayor is an idiot and this move will cost him more money than it will save.

Why should I hustle my ass off only to finish picking up trash so I can help out with other tasks that if they were on "stint" would be done too.

But the good news is when the trash is sitting at the curb after 3pm I'll be on overtime. The dump closes at 2:15 so the truck will remain full and in the winter freeze solid. DUMB MAYOR, DUMBER MOVE. Or visa versa.

Anonymous said...

Here we go again with another bonehead move by Sottile. Cant this guy get his act together?

Anonymous said...

2:01pm For your information CSEA gave up "stint" work in 1992. So why has it taken 17 years to end it. There must be some reason why and bullhorner hit the nail on the head.

Why do you think it takes all day to pick up yardwaste and wood? And some days it doesn't all get picked up. If the powers that be check the weight slips they will find that it takes 8 hours to pick up 2 tons of wood. Yet the"stint" crews can pick up 45 tons of garbage in 6 hours.

The stint crews work harder than any other city employee. Take the incentive of going home early and they will work just as hard as the employees on yardwaste and wood. And the Mayor is not complaining about how hard they work.

joe frank said...

Normally, I back your thoughts. But in this case, I have to agree with McCheese.

I don't see how DPW workers can go home early and not work the full eight hours.

That just does not cut it these days.

Sorry.

Bullhorner said...

Just to be very clear - I am NOT advocating someone getting paid for not working. I was making the point that this "stint" shift was borne from something that happened in regard to picking up that trash and it only makes sense that it was created to get those trucks and workers the hell off the road and away from the businesses.

How do you do that? Tell them to hustle their asses off and then let them go.

I am against anyone getting paid for not working but in this case it is a deal that makes sense.

Ever get behind the garbage truck? Ever have a smelly one around your business that serves food?

That was what brought this on. Not the pay part.

If you look back in bargaining history I bet that it was MANAGEMENT that proposed the idea.

Anonymous said...

The same EXACT thing happens at the ULSTER COUNTY JAIL>>> transition team comes back to the jail after completing a transport,then they "HIDE" somewhere in the jail and do NOTHING,getting paid close to 30 /hr for doing NOTHING.Fix that ,mr. (good ole boy) SUPERINTENDANT. Yeah,right!

Anonymous said...

I am going to ask my boss, "if I do my job faster and it gets done early" can I go home and get paid?
Ill bet any one of the DPW guys my salary that I am told "NO"!!!!!!!!!
This practice has no merit, and in the real world, if you cant meet the criteria of your position you are released from your duties!
IF you can get it all done in 6 hours today, you had better be able to get it done in 6 tomorrow!
Then find something else to do!
You should not be praised or given special treament for doing your job...
The employees bitching about this are the ones that know its a crock of shit and they get away with murder, thats why they are fighting so hard to keep hold of it!
Finally a mayor is getting a grip on what is wrong with all the BS around here, and now you want to crucify him?
I am no fan, but I am glad to see he is trying to a full days work from our employees.

Anonymous said...

Maybe Mayor McCheese can start giving updates on what extra work is being performed by the 21 extra workers for 2 to 4 hours a day.

Anonymous said...

CSEA gave up "stint" work 17 years ago, because they new it did not benefit the workers in the long run. Look and any retired DPW employee who worked "stint" and I bet they walk with a limp or have cronic back problems.