“For unions and the whole idea of collective bargaining, this is the kind of report that just makes any sort of future very, very hard to negotiate,” Detroit Free Press editorial editor Stephen Henderson wrote. “It suggests that collective bargaining turns government into a provider of jobs instead of public services.”
The Detroit Water and Sewerage Department (DWSD) pays a “horseshoer” $29,245 in salary and roughly $27,000 in benefits. There’s only one problem — Detroit has no horses for the horseshoer to shoe.
Some critics argue that the department has been turned into some sort of a government jobs program. Meanwhile, the local union president says it is “not possible” to eliminate positions, the Michigan Capitol Confidential reports.
The horseshoer’s job description, which was last updated in 1967 (Lyndon B. Johnson was president), is “to shoe horses and to do general blacksmith work… and to preform related work as required,” according to the department’s website.
With a large amount of debt, DWSD has struggled with rising water prices and inefficient services. They use roughly twice the number of employees per gallon as comparable cities like Chicago.
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