To the editor:
So now we are in the middle of a garbage strike. It’s a hassle, but it could have been predicted.
Some years ago, Marblehead, along with many other towns, made the decision to reduce the number of its employees and outsource many kinds of work that were formerly done by town employees — including picking up trash.
My understanding of why this came about is that the town didn’t want to pay for medical benefits or pensions. Those in charge may have bought into the Reagan/Thatcher privatization model, that private companies could be more “efficient” than government. So, increasingly, work previously done by town employees was subbed out to private contractors. Most town workers were paid at a not very high rate, but they had some job security, medical care and a pension.
This outsourcing always seemed like a bad idea to me: We don’t want to pay for benefits, so “Let’s outsource poverty!” Who cares what people are paid, as long as we get the work done. But when a town employee, who lives in town (and remember, Marblehead once had the will to build housing so that town employees could afford to live in town — that was considered a social good— as well as building housing for the poor, the old, the infirm and veterans, town employees were included — but now we no longer seem to have the will to do that.)
Anyway, when a town worker fixed or built something, if they screwed it up, everyone knew — they knew the employee, who probably lived in town, and they’d catch hell. But now the work is done by people from somewhere else, being paid who knows what — the profit goes to the managers, owners and stockholders, not the workers.
Is this really cheaper? In the long run? When there’s no accountability for poor workmanship, etc. ? Think of the jobs you’ve seen around town — the sidewalks that crumble after a few years.
By the way, Republic Services’ CEO Jon Vander Ark’s total compensation in 2024 was reported as $12,977,475. At least six other top employees made $2.5M-$3.5M, while the 12 members of the board of directors made about $350,000 a year. The median income for Republic employees was $84,950. so half made less than that. Guess which ones?
I’d prefer to see the people who collect the garbage be employees and residents of Marblehead, but barring that, I say, let’s support the strikers!
Alexis Soule
Front Street
