Police protest roadwork flaggers who took their jobs

[BrunoPuntzJones]

And police wonder why there is a growing rift between them and "citizens."

Apparently up until a few days ago only police could do flagging

WOBURN, Mass. (AP) ? Dozens of police officers disrupted the work of a road maintenance crew Tuesday when they heckled civilian flaggers who have replaced law enforcement officers at construction sites under new state rules.

Woburn Police Chief Philip Mahoney and on-duty officers had to restore order, telling the roughly 50 protesters ? off-duty officers from Woburn and surrounding communities ? to stay out of the way of the crews clearing catch basins. Tuesday was the first day the new rules affected Massachusetts Highway Department projects.

Protesters parked on the state highway and entered a posted work zone, both of which are illegal, said state Highway Commissioner Luisa Paiewonsky. One off-duty officer also drove down the street against the flow of traffic, saying he had been misdirected by a flagger.

Flaggers for at least five other sites worked unimpeded, said Paiewonsky.

"We're going to keep doing this," the commissioner said. "It's the law. We have the right under the law to use flaggers under certain conditions, and we're going to do that and we're going to continue to use police details when the conditions warrant."

Gov. Deval Patrick, who issued the new rules, said the old system unnecessarily increased costs, and that police protection was not needed at all construction sites. Critics have suggested that some officers pass the time on such shifts by sitting in their cars. They also question whether the overtime details leave the officers too mentally or physically tired for their regular shifts.

The administration's new rules set up a three-tiered system for classifying work sites. Roads with speed limits of less than 45 miles per hour are the most likely to have civilian flaggers assigned to them.

Flaggers are paid $15-$26 per hour, while police officers receive $30-$42 per hour. Most flaggers used Tuesday were paid between $15 and $19 per hour , Paiewonsky said.

Well at the least the gov was eliminating some waste, should get some credit for that. But wtf, $15 minimum per hour for flagging? We've got thousands of Mexicans down here working on Interstate for $8 doing the same thing. And up in Mass. the police think they should be the ones, by law, to do it for $30-$42 per hour?

Oh, and I didn't see where any citations were issued for them being parked illegally or entering a construction zone.

 

[aphex]

Do flaggers really make $26/hr cause if so, i'm quitting my job at the law firm and switching jobs.

 

[Anubis]

Originally posted by: aphex
Do flaggers really make $26/hr cause if so, i'm quitting my job at the law firm and switching jobs.

i used to do it in the summer when i was in HS i made 19$/h doing that 10 years ago

its boring and makes your feet hurt but yea its good money

 

[Farang]

I'm going to become a professional flagger

 

[Thump553]

That's the biggest racket. It's written into state law here that the flaggers on state roads have to be police officers (and even higher paid state cops on the interstates). The governor always uses the excuse its for public safety, they have arrest powers and it doesn't cost the state anything because the highway contractors pay the bills.

A little scary when the person in charge of your state doesn't realize the state ends up paying the expense as part of the contractor's bid.

OTOH it seems at least once a year some idiot plows into one of them here. Not sure if I would want the job.

 

[techs]

I say, lets import Chinese guest workers. Then we can pay them minimum wage.
In fact, we could import Chinese policeman.
Then mailmen.
etc etc etc
How wonderful for the taxpayer (note I didn't use the plural)

 

[daveymark]

Originally posted by: techs
I say, lets import Chinese guest workers. Then we can pay them minimum wage.
In fact, we could import Chinese policeman.
Then mailmen.
etc etc etc
How wonderful for the taxpayer (note I didn't use the plural)

well at least that way if they get hit nobody will care(sadly). hit a cop and there'd be hell to pay

 

[Capt Caveman]

Sadly, up til this change, police officers were the highest paid government workers in the state due to all of the OT they made from working construction sites.

Thank god it's finally been changed.

 

[PingSpike]

Wow...that's good money for being a flagger. Can you do that part time?

 

[slpaulson]

That's a crazy amount of money for standing around holding a fricken flag.

 

[BoomerD]

Union laborers (the ones who do the flagging on construction jobs) make about $26-$28/hr with pretty decent benefits on top of that wage, PLUS, depending on the type of roadway being worked, there's usually at least one "off-duty" CHP officer sitting in his patrol car in case of emergency or some moron who ignores the speed limits in the construction zone. Here in Kahleeforneeya, traffic fines are doubled in construction zones...so they can easily recoup the cost of the CHP officer(s) sitting there doing their paperwork.

 

[PingSpike]

I don't think I've ever driven through road construction in any state that didn't have a sign saying traffic fines were doubled for speeding in a work zone.

 

[SigArms08]

Originally posted by: techs
I say, lets import Chinese guest workers. Then we can pay them minimum wage.
In fact, we could import Chinese policeman.
Then mailmen.
etc etc etc
How wonderful for the taxpayer (note I didn't use the plural)

lol, what a slippery (and dangerous) slope that could become. Secretary of State employees, firefighters, teachers, and even politicians!

 

[BarneyFife]

Its a dangerous job. I can't believe they require police officers to do flagging in that state. Seems odd.