Snowplow drivers stage job action

St. Louis County snowplow drivers stage job action

Associated Press
January 16, 2011

DULUTH, Minn. - Some three-fourths of the St. Louis County snowplow drivers in the Virginia district didn't respond to an emergency call-out on Saturday morning.

The drivers belong to Teamsters Local 320, which has filed a strike notice for early Wednesday. The union says the main issues are the county's proposals for duties and pay for long-time employees. (imagine that!)

County Administrator Kevin Gray told the Duluth News Tribune the Virginia station has 16 to 18 road-maintenance workers. He says the county used its contingency plans for the possible strike to fill the gap, although Saturday's job action hadn't been expected.

Gray says the Virginia station is the only one of the 16 locations in the county where workers didn't respond to the call-out Saturday.

A mediation session is set for Monday.

In the real world, these people would be added to the unemployment rolls comes Tuesday.

TexasBlue wrote:In the real world, these people would be added to the unemployment rolls comes Tuesday.

And they should have been. It's insane that a public-sector employee can pull shit like this and get away with it with impunity. Who the hell negotiates these ridiculous contracts?

This is why I tire of unions.

Btw, just so you get the impact of this story, look at the map and see how big St. Louis County is. Find Duluth and you'll see.

According to Wikipedia,

it is the largest county by total area in Minnesota, and the second largest in the United States east of the Mississippi River.

I was going to say, before seeing that second post, that it looks like the largest county in the state... now I see that it is.

Nothing there though.

TexasBlue wrote:Nothing there though.

Yes, it's not a densely populated area... but I'm still guessing there are people there who still need to utilize the roads to get to work.

Call Canada. It's close enough.