Pay for garbage collectors

M

middleweight

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Jun 25, 2005
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With all these strikes going on, I am wondering what the average garbage collector earns in Toronto...any ideas? base wage, overtime, holidays, paid sick days, pension etc.

A buddy at work claims the driver and more senior garbage collectors earn a basic of $75k. If it is $75k a year plus overtime and decent benefits, why even bother going to University?
 
If it's $24 to start, as a guess a Senior (10+ years experience) collector might get $38 - so around $80k a year, throw in some overtime and you're at $90k plus benefits.

Always thought Garbage collecting was in the category of jobs, along with security gaurd and taxi driver (though I know some who make $60k - working 70 hours a week though - and no offence to any Security gaurds and taxi drivers out there), that you did as a last resort (ie, failed all your exams/school etc) but going by the above wages, if true, I am sure it may be a career of choice these days for school leavers.
 
These stats have got to be wrong!!! If a garbage collector STARTS at $24 an hour, there is something seriously fucking wrong with this city and those striking union fucktards!
 
MuffDiver said:
These stats have got to be wrong!!! If a garbage collector STARTS at $24 an hour, there is something seriously fucking wrong with this city and those striking union fucktards!
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You just realized this? It's insane. Literally insane.

Unfortunately it's true.
 
In the private sector, the garbage guys start at $15. I have no issue with them being paid more than minimum wage. Hell, I would not want to be stuck on a stinky truck in the hot summer sun.
 
Workers who go to work 40 hours a week in a tough job....

fuji said:
You just realized this? It's insane. Literally insane.

Unfortunately it's true.
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Deserve to be able to make enough money to be able to buy a house take a decent vacation every year and sent their kids to college. You just can't do that unless you pay decent wages.
 
Mrbig1949 said:
Deserve to be able to make enough money to be able to buy a house take a decent vacation every year and sent their kids to college. You just can't do that unless you pay decent wages.
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No they don't deserve that. If they want that go get some skills and some education and earn it.

I do not deserve to pay for your free shit.
 
And why is therm making a decent wage looked down upon? Just because they are not wearing a suit and working on bay street does not mean thay are not entitled to a decent wage. Toronto is so over priced, that they would struggle otherwise.
 
wantoplay said:
And why is therm making a decent wage looked down upon? Just because they are not wearing a suit and working on bay street does not mean thay are not entitled to a decent wage. Toronto is so over priced, that they would struggle otherwise.
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I don't begrudge plumbers their wages and they don't wear suits. They earn what they get because they are educated and skilled. Even in non-union contexts, such as when they work in little shops contracting out to home owners, they earn a pretty penny.

This has nothing to do with wearing a suit. It has to do with if you want to earn a good wage then go educate and train yourself so that you're worth it--like plumbers.
 
There is a lot of crap about unionized workers making too much...

MuffDiver said:
These stats have got to be wrong!!! If a garbage collector STARTS at $24 an hour, there is something seriously fucking wrong with this city and those striking union fucktards!
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Sometimes without high levels of education. Just because you have an education and you don't make more you are living in some sort of dream world if you think that is going to change.

Look at NHL hockey players. No education in most cases and high wages. Oh that is because they have talent, bull shit, Gordie Howe never made any real money. It is because Ted Lindsay and some others organized a UNION the NHLPA.
 
Mrbig1949 said:
Look at NHL hockey players. No education in most cases and high wages.
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Even "high wage" hockey players had to face economic reality and took paycuts after their strike/lockout and fired their union boss. The problem with City workers is that they feel the public money teat is bottomless and they can continue to be grossly overpaid forever.
 
But>>>

No matter what they make..they have got to drop the demands for cumulative sick time. Police, Fire and others dropped this years ago. You get a yearly allotment...USE IT OR LOSE IT!!

It is amazing how people are NOT sick when they are allowed to bank time....only to have the city pay for the last year when they burn up their sick time while headed to retirement!
 
Paying people to come to work when they are sick is fucking retarded and a hazard to people's health.

Right now in the middle of this H1N1 pandemic the last thing you want is a guy who is sick as a dog coughing and sneezing with a fever coming into work because he wants to bank the sick day.

Don't pay sick people to come in to work--retarded policy.
 
nip said:
I would even say truck drivers have a harder life than garbage collectors and they earn roughly the same.
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10,000 cab drivers would gladly drive a garbage truck for $70K a year or even $50K.
 
Compromised said:
In the private sector, the garbage guys start at $15. I have no issue with them being paid more than minimum wage. Hell, I would not want to be stuck on a stinky truck in the hot summer sun.
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You may want to check that since the Waste Management contract pay their collectors 22 and hour as per their last contract. This was information from the newspaper when they negotiated their last contract. You do realize that Waste Management is unionized and the threat of a strike even exists if we privatize. City of Mississauga was in a potential position of a strike a number of years ago with their private company going on strike.
Also Etobicoke went private but when it looked at getting back into the garbage business it would have cost them 16 million dollars in equipment purchases (trucks etc.) since they sold off their publicly owned trucks etc.
So I know a lot people are calling for privitization but it is not as simple as that. In fact as an example the private companies are paid per pickup of heavy equipment that is thrown out, stove refridgerator etc. A common practise is to claim the homeowner never had the heavy equipment out so they had to make a second trip thus doubling their fee but city has no way of checking to verify.
I am not a city worker or anything like that but I have looked into the private service since I am the one paying the taxes and there are pros and cons. Going private doesn't mean the city pays a lower wage and beneifits from that. It pays whatever the company charges the city for the hourly rate of the worker. Think about a mechanic's rate or any other service rate you get charged by a company. When you ask the actual service person they aren't making that rate per hour.
Not against going private but I am also not interested into a large private company upping their rates and if the city refuses it would cost millions to provide an alternate. And there are not a great deal of comptetion for large garbage pickup to cover the entire City of Toronto. So I am also concerned about a large private monopoly dictating rates. I look at the 407 fiasco when the original concept was that once the tolls paid for the highway it would revert to public and no more tolls. Now of course we will be paying forever for the 407 and never will it be free.
 
It doesn't matter if the contractor is unionized or not, providing the city gets a couple of key conditions put into the contract agreement:

1. If the contractor is unable to provide services, say because of a strike, the city is entitled to turn to a different contractor to provide the service

2. To submit a bid a contractor must show that it has reached an agreement with its union that covers the duration of the contract with the city

That is essentially what Etobicoke does with its contractor, who is unionized. The city does not have to worry about a strike because the labour agreement between the contractor and its union covers the life of the deal.

By the time that contract expires the city will have received new bids from the same or other contractors, also demonstrating that they have an agreement with their unions.

Moreover though this is about competition--unions are fine, when they are not a monopoly. When the union has to compete with other unions or other companies its generally becomes more competitive, wages come down, and workers become more productive (less lazy).

Nothing wrong with union workers so long as they feel a little fire under their asses to get the job done at a fair price.
 
what's with all this trash talking, guys? c'mon... show a little respect! ;)
 
24$/hr is what a mid-level tech will earn. That would be after an initial trade degree (1 1/2-3 years of school) plus about 4-12 years in the IT business. If these guys make 24$/hr starting for lifting a can into the back of a truck and pulling a lever, they are indeed ingrates.

wantoplay said:
And why is therm making a decent wage looked down upon? Just because they are not wearing a suit and working on bay street does not mean thay are not entitled to a decent wage. Toronto is so over priced, that they would struggle otherwise.
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No, what makes them not entitled to that high a wage is that they dropped out or barely made it through high-school, and do a job that requires very little skill. While those of us who do certifications, degrees, and/or apprenticeships for years after graduating high-school have to toil, scrape and sacrifice to get less than that.

BTW, I have friends doing ok on 35k/year living here. Sure, they might not have a fancy car or clothes bought this month, but they have decent appartments and can still afford creature comforts (occasional clubbing or restaurants, books, games, etc..).

So please shove that "poor, starved, oppressed, 50k-earning garbageman" drivel up your poop-shoot. In life, you reap what you sow...unless you're a union member.
 
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