Curmudgeon's Corner

Village Buzz - September 29th...

Posted by Al Campbell on Sept. 29, 2008

Bridge work is done!

Wow; how nice to be able to cross the bridges on both Lilac Lane and Freistadt Road again without the detour.

Both are beautiful...if bridges can be talked of in those terms.

And, they came in ahead of schedule which is always a treat.  Whether or not the village was wise and told us the scheduled date was later than it actually was, I don't know; but, in any case, it is always nice when things happen a bit sooner than we're told.

Teamster's settle with Waste Management...

The Teamsters appear to have over-estimated their clout with Waste Management.  They have settled for the 401K plan and not the Central States Pension plan.  They have taken cuts in the earlier proposals for both compensation and health benefits.

The final vote was supposedly about two to one in favor of the reduced benefit package when the two earlier votes were either unanimous or heavily lopsided against the richer proposal.

While the spin used in the Teamster's announcement isn't quite so blunt as I have been, this is the reality.

They didn't achieve the goal of causing Waste Management so much adverse publicity as to make them increase their initial offer.  When Waste Management got their out-of-state people here and on the job as quickly as they did, they had effectively won the battle.  I can't tell you how many people have told me that their service had been better during the strike.  That's no way to defeat the company.

And, finally, even though he has steadfastly maintained no ulterior motive in his actions, Village President Kempinski has lost some face within the community due to his attempts to cause Waste Management to blink by threats of canceling the village's contract and moving its business to Veolia.