- 2 days ago
Ever wondered what it's really like to work your way from the back of a garbage truck to the top of a national labor union?
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VIDEO TOPICS/TIMESTAMPS:
0:00 The Helper
2:58 The Laborer
5:46 The Route Veteran
8:30 The Driver
10:56 The Senior Driver
13:12 The Shop Steward
15:41 The Regional Organizer
17:54 The International Representative
20:27 The Elder Statesman
22:53 The Ghost On The Route
☕ Support the channel & suggest my next video idea: https://ko-fi.com/masterpov
VIDEO TOPICS/TIMESTAMPS:
0:00 The Helper
2:58 The Laborer
5:46 The Route Veteran
8:30 The Driver
10:56 The Senior Driver
13:12 The Shop Steward
15:41 The Regional Organizer
17:54 The International Representative
20:27 The Elder Statesman
22:53 The Ghost On The Route
Category
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LearningTranscript
00:00Level 1. The Helper. You are 18 years old. You answered an ad in the back of a local paper.
00:07The ad said, no experience necessary. It said, physical labor required. It said, must be willing
00:14to work early mornings. You showed up at the depot at 4.30 in the morning. A man with a
00:20clipboard
00:20looked you up and down. He asked if you could lift 50 pounds. You said yes. He asked if you
00:26were scared of rats. You said no. He asked if you had a pulse. You said yes. He said you
00:34were hired.
00:35That was your entire interview. You start work the next morning. You stand in the parking lot in the
00:41dark waiting to be assigned to a truck. The air smells like diesel fuel and coffee and something
00:47underneath that you can't identify yet. You will identify it later. It is the smell of everything
00:53a city throws away. It is the smell that will live in your clothes and your hair and your skin.
00:59It will live there for the next 40 years, whether you stay that long or not.
01:04Your driver is a man named Frank. He has been doing this for 22 years. He looks at you in
01:11size.
01:12He has seen a hundred helpers come and go. Most of them quit before the end of the first week.
01:18He doesn't bother to learn your name until day three. He calls you kid. He calls everyone kid
01:24until they earn something else. You climb onto the back of the truck. You grip the metal handles.
01:30The truck lurches forward. Your first stop is a residential street. Frank yells back at you.
01:37He tells you to grab the cans on both sides. He tells you not to fall off. He tells you
01:42not to
01:42get run over by a car. He tells you not to throw your back out on day one because he
01:47doesn't want
01:48to train another helper next week. You jump off. You grab the first can. It is heavier than you
01:54expected. You heave it up toward the hopper. Something wet splashes on your face. You don't know what it
02:02is. You don't want to know. You dump the can. You drop it back on the curb. You run for
02:09the truck
02:09because Frank is already rolling to the next house. You jump back on. Your hands are already
02:15sticky. Your shoulders are already burning. You have been working for six minutes. The shift is
02:22ten hours long. By the end of your first day, you have lifted more weight than you have ever lifted
02:27in your life. Your arms tremble. Your back screams. Your hands are covered in small cuts from broken glass
02:35and sharp metal and things you couldn't see inside the bags. Your boots are soaked through with liquid
02:41that didn't come from anywhere good. You smell like you died three days ago. You go home. Your mother
02:49takes one look at you and tells you to strip in the garage. You sleep for 11 hours. You wake
02:55up and do it
02:56again. Level two, the laborer. You have been on the truck for six months. You survived the first month,
03:04which most helpers don't. You survived the winter, which took out three guys from your hiring class.
03:10You survived the summer, which took out two more. The ones who quit in winter couldn't handle the cold,
03:16the way the liquid in the bags freezes into sharp daggers, the way the handles of the cans stick to
03:21your bare hands if you forget your gloves for even a minute. The ones who quit in summer couldn't handle
03:27the smell, the way a bag of chicken bones in July becomes a biological weapon, the way maggots fall
03:33out of cans and land on your shirt, and you have to keep working because the truck doesn't stop.
03:39You are a laborer now. You know the route. You know which houses put out too many bags and which
03:45houses
03:45put out bags that hide things they shouldn't. You have found construction debris mixed in with household
03:50trash. You have found a whole bathtub on the curb with a sign that said free, but which ended up
03:56in
03:56your truck anyway because the homeowner lied. You have found a dead dog wrapped in a blanket.
04:01You have found needles. You have found human teeth. You don't ask questions. You just load the truck.
04:09You have learned the rhythm. The truck moves at a walking pace down the street. You run alongside it.
04:15You grab, lift, dump, drop, and run to the next house. You do this 800 to 1,200 times a
04:24day.
04:25Your body has changed. You have lost weight in your stomach and gained muscle in your shoulders and
04:30forearms. Your hands are thick with calluses. Your grip strength could crush a soda can.
04:36You no longer feel the weight of the cans the way you did on day one.
04:40Your body has adapted to the impossible. You have learned the culture of the depot. You know who
04:46to talk to and who to leave alone. You know which drivers will train you and which ones will let
04:52you
04:52fail just to watch. You know which supervisors are reasonable and which ones are waiting for you to
04:57mess up. You know the unwritten rules. You never complain. You never slow down the truck. You never leave a
05:05can you could have grabbed. You never rat on another guy. You buy coffee for the driver on
05:11cold mornings. You pay attention. Frank has started calling you by your name. That took
05:17four months. The other guys have started nodding at you in the break room. That took six. You are not
05:24one of them yet, but you are no longer nothing. You are on your way to becoming something. You don't
05:31know
05:31what yet. You just know that the work is changing you in ways you didn't expect. You are becoming
05:37harder. You are becoming stronger. You are becoming someone who can do a job that most people wouldn't
05:43do for any amount of money. Level three, the route veteran. You have been riding the back of trucks
05:51for three years. You know every street in three different neighborhoods. You know which houses on Elm
05:57Street always tip at Christmas and which ones never have. You know that the old woman on Maple Avenue
06:03puts out her cans on Tuesday nights with a plate of cookies sitting on top. She does this every week
06:09without fail. You take the cookies. You wave at her through her kitchen window. She waves back.
06:16You know that the house on Oak Street has a dog that will try to bite you if you get
06:20too close to the
06:20fence. You know that the apartment complex on Fifth Street puts out more garbage than anyone on the
06:26route. You know that the restaurant behind the strip mall leaves grease traps out on Thursdays and
06:31those bags will burst if you don't handle them correctly. You have become efficient in a way that
06:37nobody who hasn't done this job can understand. Every movement has a purpose. You don't waste steps.
06:44You don't waste energy. You have figured out how to grip two cans at once. You have figured out how
06:50to
06:51dump a can into the hopper with one hand while grabbing the next can with the other. You have figured
06:56out
06:56how to time your jumps back onto the truck so that you land just as the truck is accelerating,
07:02saving you the effort of catching up. You have become a machine. But you have also started to
07:09notice things. You have started to notice what people throw away. You have started to read
07:15neighborhoods through their garbage. The wealthy neighborhoods throw away food. Whole meals.
07:21Groceries still in the packaging. You could feed a family for a week with what one house on the hill
07:27puts out in a single Tuesday. The working class neighborhoods throw away less food, but more
07:34everything else. Broken furniture. Cheap electronics that lasted six months. Toys that were played with
07:41once. The poor neighborhoods throw away almost nothing. What little they have, they use until it falls apart.
07:50You have started to see the whole city this way. A place that reveals itself through what it
07:55discards. You have also started to know the men you work with. Really know them. You have been to
08:02Frank's house for a barbecue. You have met his wife and his kids. You have been to the funeral of
08:08a guy
08:09from the depot who got hit by a car making a pickup on a foggy morning. You have held the
08:14hand of his
08:15widow. You have worn a black armband for a week. You understand now that this isn't just a job.
08:22This is a fraternity of men who do work that nobody else will do. And that fraternity takes care of
08:29its
08:29own. Level 4. The driver. You passed your CDL test two weeks ago. The company paid for the training.
08:37They wanted you in the driver's seat because they lost two drivers last year. One to retirement and one
08:43to a heart attack at 54. You are 26 years old. You are the youngest driver in the depot.
08:50Some of the older guys are not happy about that. They have been waiting longer than you.
08:54They think seniority should have gotten them there first. You don't engage. You just do the job.
09:00You climb into the cab of a 26-ton truck for the first time as the person responsible for moving
09:06it.
09:07You adjust the mirrors. You check the gauges. You feel the weight of the vehicle beneath you.
09:13The truck is a machine worth $300,000. The route it runs generates revenue for the company.
09:20If you crash it, you are done. If you hit someone, you are done. And maybe something worse.
09:27The responsibility settles into your shoulders. You take it seriously.
09:32You drive slowly through the neighborhoods the first week. Your helper is a kid who just started.
09:37He is 19. He looks at you the way you used to look at Frank. You try to be patient
09:43with him.
09:43You remember what it was like. You remember how tired you were. How scared. How desperate to prove you
09:50could do the work. You yell at him when he needs to be yelled at. You teach him when he
09:55can be taught.
09:56You tell him to watch the traffic when he jumps off the truck. You tell him not to grab two
10:01cans at
10:01once until he has a year under his belt. You tell him the things Frank told you. The route is
10:08different
10:08from the driver's seat. You see the whole picture now. You see the homeowner looking out through the
10:13curtains. You see the kid on the bicycle you have to watch out for. You see the car coming up
10:19behind the
10:19truck trying to pass on the right. You are managing a thousand small dangers at once.
10:25The helper on the back of your truck trusts you to keep him alive. You take that seriously.
10:31You do not speed. You do not take corners fast. You do not start moving before he has a solid
10:38grip
10:39on the handles. You are responsible for him in a way that has nothing to do with the company
10:44or the paycheck. You are responsible for him in the way Frank was responsible for you.
10:50That is a debt you can never pay off. You can only pay it forward.
10:56Level 5. The Senior Driver
10:58You have been driving for six years. You are 32 years old. You are married. You have a two-year
11:04-old son.
11:05Your wife was a nurse when you met her and she is a nurse now. She does not love that
11:10you come home
11:10smelling like garbage but she loves you. She understands what the job is. She understands
11:16that it pays well. That it has benefits. That it has a pension. She understands that men in your
11:22family have done physical work for generations and that there is dignity in it. You have moved up to
11:27one of the best routes in the city. Commercial pickup. Dumpsters behind restaurants and apartment
11:32complexes. The work is different. You are not running alongside the truck. You are using the
11:37hydraulic arms to lift commercial containers. You are precise. You are careful. You are operating
11:43equipment that could crush a human being if you make a mistake. You know three drivers personally
11:48who have killed people by accident over the years. Backing up too fast. Not checking the mirror.
11:54Pedestrians in the blind spot. They carry those deaths with them. You think about that every time you
11:59put the truck in reverse. You have become a mentor in the depot. Younger guys come to you for advice.
12:05They ask you how to handle a supervisor who has it in for them. They ask you how to file
12:10a grievance
12:10through the union. They ask you how to talk to the driver when the driver won't slow down.
12:15You give them honest answers. You tell them the things you wish someone had told you.
12:19You are a union member. You pay dues every month. You attend meetings. You understand that the union is
12:26the only thing standing between you and a company. That company would work you to death for minimum
12:30wage if it could. You have seen the benefits the union fought for. The overtime pay. The health care.
12:37The protected brakes. The safety equipment. You know that every benefit you enjoy was earned by men
12:43in hard hats standing on picket lines decades before you were born. You are one of them now. You vote
12:49in
12:49every election. You show up. You do your part. You are raising a son who will never have to empty
12:55a
12:55can of household garbage into the back of a truck unless he chooses to. That is the goal. That is
13:01what the work is for. That is what men of your grandfather's generation worked for. A better life
13:06for the next generation. You are doing your part. You are holding up your end of the deal.
13:11Level 6. The Shop Steward
13:14The union members elected you. You didn't campaign hard. You didn't want the job. Not really.
13:21But the last steward retired and no one else would step up and the guys in the depot trusted
13:26you. They said you were fair. They said you would stand up to management. They said you had the right
13:32combination of respect for the work and refusal to be pushed around. You took the job. You represent
13:39120 workers in your depot. Drivers, helpers, mechanics, dispatchers. When they have a problem with
13:46management, they come to you first. You listen to their complaints. You evaluate
13:52them. You decide which ones are worth fighting and which ones the worker needs to hear a hard
13:57truth about. Not every complaint is a grievance. Sometimes a worker is wrong. Sometimes management
14:04is right. You have to be honest with your members, even when they don't want to hear it.
14:09You meet with the supervisor every Friday afternoon. You sit across a desk from a man who was a driver
14:1515 years ago and who now wears a tie and manages schedules and pretends he doesn't remember what
14:21the back of a truck felt like. You negotiate. You argue about overtime assignments. You argue
14:27about safety equipment. You argue about discipline procedures. You know the contract by heart.
14:34You quote the section and subsection when management tries to pull something. You have filed 14 grievances
14:40in your first year as steward. You have won eight of them. You have settled four. You have lost two.
14:47You consider that a good record. Your members respect you. Your supervisor respects you, even when he
14:54hates you. Respect and affection are different things in this business. You have discovered that you have
15:00a talent for this work. You are a negotiator. You can read a room. You can feel the moment when
15:07an
15:07argument needs to escalate and the moment when it needs to be resolved. You are good at reading
15:13people. You have started to wonder what else you could do with these skills. You have started to
15:18consider running for a bigger role in the union, something at the regional level. Your wife has
15:23noticed the shift. She asks you what you want. You tell her you don't know yet. But you know it's
15:30something more than what you're doing now. The work is changing you again. You didn't expect that to
15:35happen in your 30s. You thought you were done becoming new people. You were wrong.
15:41Level seven, the regional organizer. You won the election. You moved your family to a bigger city.
15:47Your son is in middle school now. Your daughter was born two years ago. Your wife took a job at
15:53a
15:53hospital downtown. The house is smaller than the one you owned, but it is closer to everything.
15:59You miss the old neighborhood. You miss the guys at the depot. You don't miss getting up at four
16:04o'clock in the morning. You represent 14 locals across the region. Thousands of workers. Drivers,
16:11sorters, recyclers, mechanics, everyone in sanitation and waste management across three states.
16:17Your job is to coordinate contract negotiations, organize new shops, defend workers when companies
16:23try to bust unions or cut corners on safety. You travel constantly. You fly to cities you have never
16:29heard of to meet with workers who look exactly like the workers you left behind. Different accents,
16:35same faces, same hands, same stories. You testify before state legislatures about workplace safety.
16:42You sit in hearings where corporate lawyers try to weaken regulations that keep men alive.
16:47You push back. You tell the legislators what it is actually like to ride the back of a truck in
16:52August.
16:53You tell them about the drivers who never came home.
16:55You tell them the names. You make it personal because statistics don't move anyone, but names do.
17:02You organize a strike at a regional hauler that has been cutting corners for a decade.
17:07300 workers walk off the job. The company tries to bring in replacements. The replacements don't last
17:13a week because they don't know how to do the job, and they are scabs, and nobody in the industry
17:18will
17:18respect them. The company caves. The workers get a new contract with better pay, better benefits,
17:24and a safety committee with real authority. You did that. Not alone. But you were part of it.
17:30You were one of the people who made that happen. You go home, exhausted. Your daughter is already
17:36asleep. Your wife is waiting up. She asks you how it went. You tell her. She holds your hand while
17:43you
17:43tell her about the workers who hugged you at the ratification vote. She is proud of you. You are
17:48proud of yourself. That is a strange feeling. You don't think you have ever felt that before.
17:53Level 8. The International Representative. The National Union promoted you to a position
18:00at the international level. You are based in Washington. You work on policy, legislation,
18:06organizing strategy for the entire country. You manage a staff of researchers, lawyers,
18:13communications specialists. You coordinate with other unions in other industries. You attend meetings
18:19and office buildings with marble lobbies and conference rooms that cost more to rent than a
18:24year of wages for the workers you represent. The people in those rooms wear suits that cost more
18:30than your car. You wear a suit too now. You hate it. But you wear it because the work requires
18:36it.
18:37You have not touched a garbage can in six years. You feel that absence sometimes. You feel the distance
18:44between your current life and the life you came from. You remember the depot. You remember Frank,
18:50who passed away last year from lung cancer. You went back for the funeral. You stood at the grave with
18:56men you hadn't seen in fifteen years. Some of them were still driving. Some of them had retired.
19:03Some of them had followed you into union work. You looked around and you saw the history of your
19:08entire adult life standing in a cemetery in the rain. You testify before Congress. You meet with
19:15senators and representatives. You argue for pension protections. You argue for health care. You argue
19:22for workplace regulations. Some of the politicians you meet with are serious and thoughtful. Some of them
19:28are idiots who will say anything to get elected. You have learned to tell the difference quickly.
19:33You have learned which ones can be trusted and which ones will sell you out the moment a corporate
19:39donor makes a phone call. You travel to contract negotiations across the country. You sit at tables
19:45across from executives of waste management corporations worth billions of dollars. You negotiate deals that
19:52affect tens of thousands of workers. You have become someone you did not expect to become. You have become a
19:59player at a level you did not know existed when you were eighteen years old and gripping the handles
20:04on the back of Frank's truck. Sometimes you can't believe how far you have come. Sometimes you feel
20:10like a fraud. Sometimes you wonder if you belong in these rooms. Then you remember who you are representing.
20:18You remember the men in the depots. You remember the widows at the funerals. You belong here because
20:24somebody has to be here for them. Level nine. The elder statesman. You are 62 years old. You have been
20:32in the
20:32union for 44 years. You are a legend. Not because you asked for it. Not because you pursued it. But
20:40because you
20:40stayed. You stayed when others left. You kept showing up. You kept fighting. You kept winning enough battles to
20:48matter and losing enough battles to stay humble. You sit on the executive board of the international
20:54union. You are one of the voices that shapes policy for millions of workers across north america.
21:00Younger organizers come to you for advice. You give it. You try not to lecture. You remember what it was
21:07like to be the young man with new ideas who thought the old guys didn't understand the modern world.
21:12You know now that the old guys understood more than he gave them credit for.
21:16And that the young man understood things the old guys couldn't see. Both things can be true.
21:23You try to remember that when you talk to the next generation. You still travel. Not as much as you
21:28used to. Your back won't allow it. You have three herniated discs from your years on the trucks.
21:34You have arthritis in both knees. You have the kind of ache in your hands that never goes away.
21:40A souvenir from four decades of gripping and lifting and pulling. Your doctor tells you to slow down.
21:46Your wife tells you to slow down. You tell them you will. You don't.
21:52You speak at conferences. You write articles for the union newsletter. You are interviewed by
21:57documentary filmmakers who are making films about the history of American labor. You tell them stories
22:03about the old days. About strikes that nobody remembers. About men whose names should be remembered but
22:09aren't. You are becoming history yourself. You can feel it happening. You are becoming a person who knew
22:16people who knew people who were there at the beginning. Your grandson is 16 years old. He wants
22:23to be a lawyer. He asked you last summer if he should take a job at the depot for a
22:27summer to understand
22:28the work. You told him no. You told him that was a choice men made when they had no other
22:34choices.
22:34His great grandfather made that choice. Your father made that choice. You made that choice. He does not
22:42have to make that choice because the generations before him made sure he wouldn't have to.
22:48That is the whole point. That is what the work was for.
22:53Level 10. The Ghost on the Route
22:56You are 74 years old now. You retired five years ago. Your wife of 46 years still makes coffee every
23:04morning. You drink it slowly on the back porch. You watch the birds. The knees are worse. The back is
23:11worse. The hands tremble sometimes when you hold the cup. You do not complain. Once a month you drive
23:18back to the old depot. It has been renovated twice since you left. The trucks are different. They are
23:24automated now. Most routes run with a single driver who operates hydraulic arms from inside an air
23:30conditioned cab. The back of the truck is gone. The job you did for the first decade of your career
23:37no longer exists. You stand in the parking lot and watch the morning shift head out. The drivers are
23:43younger than your son. Some of them know who you are. Most of them don't. You don't mind. You are
23:50not
23:51here to be remembered. You are here to remember. You think about Frank sometimes. He died 15 years ago.
23:59His kids are grown. His wife remarried a decent man. Everyone moves on. You think about the helpers who
24:06quit on the first day. You wonder what they became. You think about the helpers who stayed and built
24:13careers and raised families on this work. You hope they are well. You think about the men who died on
24:20the job. You remember their names. You say them out loud sometimes on the drive home.
24:25Your grandson is in law school now. He calls you every Sunday. He asks you about the old days. He
24:32is
24:32writing a paper about labor history. He wants to know what it was really like. You try to tell him.
24:39You find that words fail you. How do you explain the smell? How do you explain the cold? How do
24:46you
24:47explain the brotherhood? How do you explain what it meant to come home every night knowing you had done
24:53something that had to be done? You try anyway. He listens. He takes notes. He says he is proud of
25:01you.
25:02That word sits inside your chest for days. You go to the funeral of another old friend in the spring.
25:08You wear your suit. Your wife helps you tie your tie because your hands don't work the way they used
25:14to.
25:15At the service, a man you have never met walks up to you. He is in his forties. He says
25:21his father
25:22drove a truck for thirty years. He says his father talked about you. He says his father told him that
25:28you fought for the union when nobody else would. He says his father said you were a good man. He
25:34shakes
25:35your hand. His grip is strong. You recognize that grip. It is a garbage man's grip. It is your grip.
25:43He walks away. You stand there for a long time. You don't move. You can barely breathe.
25:51Somewhere in a city you have never visited, an eighteen-year-old is showing up to a depot at
25:56four-thirty in the morning. He answered an ad. He has never lifted a can in his life.
26:02He is nervous. He is tired. He doesn't know what he is walking into. He will climb onto the back
26:10of a
26:10truck. He will smell things he cannot unsmell. He will lift until his arms shake. He will go home
26:17and sleep like the dead. He will come back tomorrow. He doesn't know it yet, but he is about to
26:23join a
26:24brotherhood that stretches back a hundred years. He doesn't know the men whose shoulders he stands on.
26:30He will. He will learn. The cycle continues.
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