A thought on sanitation workers...demanded and overlooked.

[mfcorey1]

The man in the gray work uniform with reflective orange stripes was a welcome respite at a recent Atlanta City Council meeting.

After hours of droning public debate over the Gulch Tax Giveaway project, Stober Davis walked to the mic and in a deep voice grabbed the crowd’s attention: “I’m gonna say rats. I’m gonna say water bugs. And maggots. That’s what my business office looks like.”

Davis drives a truck for the Atlanta Office of Solid Waste Services. In other words, he’s a garbageman, one of the forgotten foot soldiers in the city’s front-line services. That is, forgotten until they skip your house.

“We do the job no one else wants to do,” he told the council. “We touch the things no one else wants to touch. We’re talking about trash. Your kids don’t want to take out the trash. That’s what we do every day.”

He came to tell city leaders that sanitation workers are underpaid. Guys hanging off the back of the truck make $14 an hour. As a driver, Davis pulls in $16.38. That’s $29,000 and $34,000, respectively, much closer to the poverty line ($25,000 for a family of four) than the metro area’s median income ($53,500).

The city says drivers can earn up to $44,900 and laborers can earn up to $37,000. Not many stick around long enough to do that.

https://www.ajc.com/news/local/torpy-large-atlanta-garbage-crews-sick-being-treated-like-trash/FJ6ff0bMIdLORMXoDhL32M/

[Sherman A1]

1. These are the folks who in my estimation are really heroes

The folks that pick up the trash, the folks that come out in the storms and restore electrical power, the folks that drive the trucks to deliver things everywhere in all sorts of weather. They are far too often overlooked and undervalued, but they keep our society moving along.

[peekaloo]

2. Kick