Unions Rool! Detroit Drools! (They've Got A Horseshoer On Staff)
Via the incomparable ("TSA: Snort my taint!") Popehat, aka Ken White, Detroit has a horseshoer on staff but nary so much as a pony. Jarrett Skorup writes at MichiganCapitalConfidential:
Despite having no horses, the water and sewerage department for the city of Detroit employs a horseshoer.Yet even with a department so bloated that it has a horseshoer and no horses, the local union president said it is "not possible" to eliminate positions.
Union rules have turned the department into a government jobs program, some critics say.
The horseshoer's job description is "to shoe horses and to do general blacksmith work ... and to perform related work as required." The description was last updated in 1967.
The Detroit Water and Sewerage Department (DWSD) has a large debt, rising water prices and inefficient services -- using almost twice the number of employees per gallon as other cities like Chicago.
Neighhhhh!
There's this obscure joke in "Archer" in which the agency is cutting the budget.
Boss Lady: We've had cut backs everywhere: I've even had to lay off my furrier.
Archer: Mother, I didn't even know you had a horse.
Ha! That was awesome. Furrier... ferrier... no one got this but me? Hard to say, 'cause i watched it online and cats weren't paying attention.
Anyhow: Detroit. Broke. Fire the horse guy.
Storm Saxon's Gall Bladder at August 20, 2012 7:37 AM
Farrier, not ferrier. Even the U.S. Senate had a farrier until 2006. (Hint: He's now Governor of Rhode Island.)
Chris at August 20, 2012 8:52 AM
Hopefully the blacksmith is shoeing the Detroit Mounted Police horses and the police don't have a separate blacksmith. But some how I doubt it.
And of course the Detroit City council reinstates a mounted patrol in 2010 as they see the economy just booming and everything coming up roses.
Jim P. at August 20, 2012 9:07 AM
IS there work for him to do? It sounds like there are other duties besides the non-existent horses. In the 90s where I lived there was outcry when a black smith was noticed on the payroll of the city. He was responsible for fixing the grates (e.g. around trees in the sidewalk & over storm drains) and some iron work on the cities building. They had more than enough work for him.
The Former Banker at August 20, 2012 9:08 AM
Do you want ants? Cause this is how we get ants.
lujlp at August 20, 2012 9:45 AM
Do they still have a buggy whip maker?
smurfy at August 20, 2012 10:26 AM
Thank you Chris. I think a ferrier might be a guy who takes people across a river. I doan't spel to good.
Storm Saxon's Gall Bladder at August 20, 2012 10:42 AM
"Do they still have a buggy whip maker?"
Yeah, his office is right next to the lamplighter's.
Cousin Dave at August 20, 2012 1:55 PM
Water... Water...
Crid [CridComment at gmail] at August 20, 2012 3:06 PM
Meanwhile, you'll never guess what the Mayor has in mind. The mayor of NYC, I mean.
Crid [CridComment at gmail] at August 20, 2012 3:59 PM
The horses disappeared because they didn't have as good a union as the blacksmith.
fiftyville at August 20, 2012 8:22 PM
Reminds me of early nineties where I live - we have streetcars which used to have conductors (all automated ticketing now). They run a restaurant car that is pre-booked, flat rate for the meal and service, etc. But the union rules said it still had to have a conductor, who sat up the back reading a book for the shift. It was a plum shift handed out to employees with seniority. Incoming conservative government, taking over from hopeless socialist administration that bankrupted the state, close to their first act was to axe this requirement. Symbolic, tiny amount of money, but boy did the union complain....
Ltw at August 21, 2012 11:43 PM
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