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Saturday, February 25, 2012

Volunteers Save Cities Billions, But Unions Cry Foul

With budgets tighter than ever, cities across America are increasingly looking for more free labor. Nowhere is that trend more evident than Yakima, Wash.

“More and more every year, a large part of what we do is volunteers,” says Archie Matthews, Yakima’s director of neighborhood development services, “It saves us a ton of money.”

Matthews says begging for volunteers is not beneath him. And to his surprise, he usually gets them. Once signed up, they do a variety of tasks, including construction work for low-income housing, painting over gang graffiti and keeping senior centers from having to close their doors.

3 comments:

tmills said...

Really, what is the difference between an union and the Capone gang? Except maybe the hats.

Anonymous said...

I was told years ago that there are 2 types of people - there are givers and there are takers. The volunteers are givers and should be commended for their service to the community.

Anonymous said...

Union officials are looking out for themselves keeping them in high paying jobs with vacations all over the world.