Although the contract says so, Waste Management should not be on the hook for penalties for not picking up the trash, recycling and yard waste for 10 days. The union’s upper management (not the General Fund, necessarily) should pick up the tab, since it was they who made the command decision to turn down Waste Management’s decent offer after months of negotiating.

These guys are like sleazy lawyers on TV: they stir the pot and encourage frivolous strikes, then owe nothing when they eventually cave in and accept a worse deal.

Taking a chapter from Tort Reform: unless these guys are held personally accountable for their actions, we won’t see any meaningful improvement in the rationality of their negotiating tactics, and the residents of Kirkland will suffer from their impotent posturing.

Let’s get real: with unemployment as high as it is, driving a garbage truck for $75,000 a year plus bennies is a sweet-paying job that many would love to train for and perform This is not rocket science.

Roger Clarke-Johnson, Kirkland