They planned this madness!

The headline says, "Sanitation Department's slow snow cleanup was a budget protest."
The url says, http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/sanit_filthy_snow_slow_mo_qH57MZwC53QKOJlekSSDJK.
I think they should have gone with the text in the url for the headline. It seems more honest. Anyway, this explains why NYC seemed to have completely lost its mind during the last storm after having weathered so many others like it.

These garbage men really stink.

Selfish Sanitation Department bosses from the snow-slammed outer boroughs ordered their drivers to snarl the blizzard cleanup to protest budget cuts -- a disastrous move that turned streets into a minefield for emergency-services vehicles, The Post has learned.

Miles of roads stretching from as north as Whitestone, Queens, to the south shore of Staten Island still remained treacherously unplowed last night because of the shameless job action, several sources and a city lawmaker said, which was over a raft of demotions, attrition and budget cuts.

"They sent a message to the rest of the city that these particular labor issues are more important," said City Councilman Dan Halloran (R-Queens), who was visited yesterday by a group of guilt-ridden sanitation workers who confessed the shameless plot.

Halloran said he met with three plow workers from the Sanitation Department -- and two Department of Transportation supervisors who were on loan -- at his office after he was flooded with irate calls from constituents.

...multiple Sanitation Department sources told The Post yesterday that angry plow drivers have only been clearing streets assigned to them even if that means they have to drive through snowed-in roads with their plows raised.

And they are keeping their plow blades unusually high, making it necessary for them to have to run extra passes, adding time and extra pay.

One mechanic said some drivers are purposely smashing plows and salt spreaders to further stall the cleanup effort.

Sadly I'm not surprised at all that it happened. Just surprised that it hasn't happened before. Strikes by the sanitation department where the trash piles up at the curb is one thing but this is something else entirely. People are dead because emergency responders couldn't get to them through the snow choked streets. But that's okay somebody had to be taught a lesson. Lesson learned. Don't give such shiftless, stiff necked, self centered people any sort of responsibility. The next story I want to read is about mass firings of the people responsible for this. I'm sure there are enough responsible souls looking for work who will readily take their places.

Via Wizbang.