Trash collectors in Pittsburgh went back to work on Thursday just a day after staging an angry demonstration demanding that the city do more to protect them from coronavirus.
Several garbage collectors gathered on Wednesday morning outside of the Pittsburgh Bureau of Environmental Services to express anger at the city for not offering hazard pay as well as protective gear.
‘We’re playing Russian roulette with every garbage bag that we’re grabbing,’ a trash collector, Sheldon White, told WPXI-TV.
‘Half the people don’t tie their bags, so when the stuff spills out, they tell you to pick it up.
‘There’s Kleenexes that people blow their nose and cough in.’
The employees were sent home on Wednesday with pay.
Initially, there were reports that they refused to pick up trash.
Sheldon White (above), a trash collector in Pittsburgh, demanded on Wednesday that the city provide its employees with protective gear
Pittsburgh trash collectors said their job exposes them to the coronavirus
Garbage collectors in Pittsburgh were sent home with pay on Wednesday after one of their employees was believed to have been exposed to someone presumed to be carrying coronavirus
But it was later learned that the department locked the doors and sanitized the headquarters after one employee was believed to have been exposed to a spouse presumed to be carrying the virus.
The workers who protested on Wednesday did not receive word that out of an abundance of caution, the department locked the doors and staggered work schedules to lower employee interaction and help prevent possible spread.
A local union chief told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that Wednesday’s demonstration was not a threat to strike but a misunderstanding.
‘The City of Pittsburgh is taking all due precautions to protect refuse workers from the Bureau of Environmental Services who were sent home today due to fears over COVID-19 exposure, and has been taking these precautions with all essential City personnel since the start of the pandemic.
‘The City has been following Centers for Disease Control guidance including having Environmental Services buildings and trucks cleaned regularly; providing workers with protective glasses and gloves; and doing daily health screenings. Workers are given gloves each day that they are not allowed to take home, and have been offered plastic gloves to wear under them if they wish.
A bicyclist is seen above riding past a pile of trash in the Oakland section of Pittsburgh on Wednesday
Pittsburgh trash collectors went back to work on Thursday on a staggered schedule to prevent interaction and possible spread of the virus
‘The City has provided Environmental Services workers wipes to regularly clean off their equipment, and the City has encouraged workers to wash their uniforms daily.
‘Every morning workers are given a health care check-list to identify if they have any symptoms of the virus.
‘This check-list has been mischaracterized as a “release form,” which it is not.’
Pittsburgh residents are being encouraged to limit exposure to germs by setting out their trash in leak-proof bags that are tied up and do not have tears or holes.
Residents are also being asked to stay back 50 feet from trash and recycling vehicles.
Allegheny County, which includes Pittsburgh and its greater metropolitan area, has a reported 133 confirmed cases of coronavirus as of Thursday.
Despite Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf’s stay-at-home order, several residents of Pittsburgh were seen riding their bikes along North Shore on Thursday
Nationwide, the number of confirmed cases surpassed 83,000 while the death toll eclipsed 1,200 as of Thursday.
The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Pennsylvania rose by 50 per cent to more than 1,600 cases, while record numbers of state residents filed for unemployment compensation, the most in the nation, according to figures released Thursday.
The state Department of Health also said five more people stricken with coronavirus died on Wednesday, bringing the state’s death toll to 16.
Pennsylvanians have filed about 650,000 unemployment compensation claims over the past 11 days as Governor Tom Wolf unveiled an order for thousands of ‘non-life-sustaining’ businesses to shut down to help stop the spread of the coronavirus.
In the seven days through Saturday, Pennsylvanians filed about 379,000 claims, smashing the record for an entire week in the state.
That was also the most in the nation by far, doubling the nearest state as business groups complain that Wolf’s shutdown order was more restrictive than those in other states.
In the four days since then, Pennsylvanians have filed another 271,000, putting the state on course to break last week’s record.
Thursday claims were still coming in and Wolf acknowledged that Pennsylvania is ‘really the epicenter’ of the national jobless crisis caused by the virus.
Wolf’s administration contends that Pennsylvania was ‘one of the first and largest states to take action to save lives and stop the spread of COVID-19 with aggressive mitigation efforts,’ spurring an increase in unemployment compensation filings.
Wolf’s Department of Labor and Industry ‘actively urges people to file online’ instead of calling, which results in more applications being filed quicker, the agency said.
Plus, workers in other large states hit hard by the coronavirus might not need to file as quickly since they have access to some combination of mandatory paid sick leave, short-term disability or paid family and medical leave, Wolf’s administration said.