进了垃圾箱：走进私人垃圾转运业的危险世界 [美国媒体]

译者按：
这是美国《大众利益》发布的长篇报道。我觉得这篇文章写得很好。文中描绘的故事可以作为了解美国下层社会人民，黑帮，以及八九十年代工会组织的没落的一个窗口。
由于文章很长，今天贴出的是文章的前半段。



By day, New York’s residential garbage is picked up by municipal workers. But come nightfall, private haulers collect the commercial trash, often working at breakneck speeds with few protections for workers.

白天，纽约的居民生活垃圾是由市政工人收集起来的。但是到了晚上，商业垃圾是由由私营公司收集的。（私营公司）经常要求工人们以极快的速度工作，却缺乏足够的劳动保护。

This article was reported in partnership with The Investigative Fund at The Nation Institute.

本文是与国家研究所调查基金合作报道的。

Shortly before 5 a.m. on a recent November night, a garbage truck with a New York Yankees decal on the side sped through a red light on an empty street in the Bronx. The two workers aboard were running late. Before long, they would start getting calls from their boss. “Where are you on the route? Hurry up, it shouldn’t take this long.” Theirs was one of 133 garbage trucks owned by Action Carting, the largest waste company in New York City, which picks up the garbage and recycling from 16,700 businesses.

最近，在一个11月的晚上，凌晨5点之前，一辆贴有纽约洋基队贴纸的垃圾车在布朗克斯一条空旷的街道上闯了红灯。车上的两名工人的工作进度比计划慢了。不久前，他们开始接到老板的电话。“你在路上的哪个地方？快点，你们不应该花这么长时间。“他们是纽约市最大的垃圾转运公司“行动垃圾转运”旗下的133辆垃圾车之一，该公司负责收集来自16700家企业的垃圾和可回收物。



In the universe of New York’s garbage industry, Action is considered a company that takes the high road. A union shop, it offers starting pay of about $16 per hour for helpers and $23 for drivers, far more than many other companies. And unlike some other companies, Action provides high-visibility gear and conducts safety meetings. But since 2008, the company’s trucks have killed five pedestrians or cyclists.

在纽约的垃圾产业领域，“行动”被认为是一条走高端路线的公司。一家有工会的公司，它为帮手提供每小时约16美元的起薪，司机则是每小时23美元，远远超过许多其他公司。与其他公司不同，“行动”为工人提供高可见性夜视设备，也开安全例会。但自2008年以来，该公司的卡车已经造成五名行人或骑自行车的人死亡。

In New York City overall, private sanitation trucks killed seven people in 2017. By contrast, city municipal sanitation trucks haven’t caused a fatality since 2014.

在整个纽约市，私人垃圾车在2017年造成7人死亡。相比之下，从属于城市市政的垃圾车自2014年以来从未造成过任何人死亡。

Pedestrians aren’t the only casualties, and Action isn’t the only company involved in fatalities. Waste and recycling work is the fifth most fatal job in America — far more deadly than serving as a police officer or a firefighter. Loggers have the highest fatality rate, followed by fishing workers, aircraft pilots and roofers. From the collection out on garbage trucks, to the processing at transfer stations and recycling centers, to the dumping at landfills, the waste industry averages about one worker fatality a week. Nationally, in 2016, 82 percent of waste-worker deaths occurred in the private sector.

伤亡人员中不止包括行人，而且“行动”并不是唯一一家涉及死亡事故的公司。垃圾转运和可回收废弃物的回收工作是美国第五大致命工作- 远比当警察或消防员更致命。伐木工的死亡率最高，其次是捕鱼工人，飞行员和屋顶工。从垃圾车的垃圾收集工作，到垃圾转运站和回收中心的垃圾转运工作，到垃圾填埋场的倾倒工作，垃圾转运行业平均每周约有一名工人死亡。在全国范围内，2016年，82％的垃圾转运工人死亡事故发生在私营公司。



Many waste companies pay workers a flat fee, some as little as $80 a shift, no matter the hours, with no health benefits, overtime pay or retirement plans. The practice of employing helpers off the books is widespread, according to a 2016 report by New York Mayor Bill de Blasio’s administration. The workforce is more than 60 percent minority, and more than half of Latino workers and about a third of black workers earn less than $35,000 annually. Many of these jobs are non-union, and while the drivers tend to be full-time employees, the helpers are often contract workers with unstable hours — some scrambling to work enough to feed their families, others clocking 18-hour or longer days. A May 2016 study by the nonprofit New York Committee for Occupational Safety and Health found that the underpayment or nonpayment of wages is “rampant in the commercial waste industry.”

许多垃圾转运公司向工人支付固定工资，无论工作时长是多少，每班只给80美元，没有医疗保健，加班费或养老金。根据纽约市长比尔·白思豪政府2016年发布的一份报告，雇佣临时工的做法很普遍。垃圾工人中，少数民族占60％以上，超过一半的拉丁裔工人和约三分之一的黑人工人每年收入不到35000美元。其中许多工人都没有加入工会，虽然司机往往是全职员工，但帮手往往是工作时间不稳定的合同工–为了养家糊口。有些人什么工作都会做，另外一些人接受每班工作18小时或更长的时间。根据一家非营利组织，纽约职业安全与健康委员会，于2016年5月进行的一项研究发现，少付或不支付工资“在商业性垃圾转运行业中很猖獗”。

译注：
比尔·白思豪（Bill de Blasio），本名小华伦·威廉（Warren Wilhelm, Jr.），美国民主党籍。曾担任纽约市公共议政员等多项公职，2013年11月5日当选纽约市市长。



译注：
这里的班次和国内的意思基本相同。把1天24小时分成3段，例如上午7时至下午3时为早班(白班)、下午3时至晚上11时为晚班(夜班)、晚上11时至上午7时为大夜班(宵夜班)各8小时。但是工作时间会更长一些。

Caban snacked on banana chips while he drove his minivan to the company yard, a gravel lot on an industrial stretch of Pacific Street in Brooklyn where freight trucks, buses and pit bulls are kept behind chain link fences. He prefers to drive to and from work so that when he heads home at the end of his shift soaked in what workers call “garbage juice,” he is not the person in the subway car that other riders move away from. “They think you’re a bum,” Caban explained, wrinkling his face for effect. An animated 45-year-old, Caban spoke in a Puerto Rican staccato, one thought tumbling excitedly into the next. He looked a decade younger with his wire-rimmed glasses, shaved head, and — when he wasn’t working — a button-down shirt and a brimmed hat.

卡班一边吃着香蕉片，一边开着他的面包车进了公司的院子里，一块位于布鲁克林太平洋街上的碎石停车场。在这片停车场里的铁链围栏后面。你能看到货车，公共汽车和斗牛犬。 他喜欢开车上下班，这样一来当他在交班回家时，他不会因为身上浸透了被垃圾工人称为“垃圾汁”的液体，而在地铁上被人避之不及 。“他们认为你是个流浪汉，”卡班解释道，皱起脸来学（人们厌恶的）表情。作为一名活跃的45岁男性，卡班说话时用波多黎各断奏曲作背景音乐，（他从）一个想法兴奋地跳到下一个想法。他看起来比实际年龄年轻十岁，戴着钢丝眼镜，剃光头，而且 – 当他不工作时– 穿着一件纽扣式衬衫并且戴着一顶檐帽。

Caban arrived at the yard. Awaiting him was Bilal, 18, an immigrant from Yemen (he asked to be identified only by his first name). A “helper,” Bilal would spend much of the night riding the back “stepper” of Caban’s aging green garbage truck. Several lights were smashed in the rear, and the driver’s side door hung crookedly behind the cab, offering a view inside of ripped seats. Faded lettering on the side recorded the truck’s past lives. (“UNDER CONTRACT TOWN OF ISLIP”) showed it had once hauled trash in a Long Island town. (“PUT YOUR CANS IN OUR HANDS”) pointed to time in the recycling business.

卡班到了公司停车场。等待他的是18岁的比拉尔，一名来自也门的移民（他要求只透露他的名而隐去姓）。作为一名帮手，比拉尔大部分时间都将站在卡班老化的绿色垃圾车后面的“踏板”上。车尾几盏灯被撞碎了，司机侧的车门扭曲地挂在驾驶室后面，从而可以看到车里破碎的座椅。侧面褪色的大字记录了卡车的前半生。 （“为艾斯利普镇服务”）显示它曾经在长岛拖运过垃圾。 （“把你们的易拉罐放在我们的手里”）指出了这辆车曾被用作可再生垃圾转运业务。

译注：
艾斯利普镇（Islip）是纽约州长岛地区的一个镇。



It doesn’t help that many rigs are in terrible condition. Garbage trucks from New York City’s 50 biggest companies are pulled off the road and declared unsafe to drive after 53 percent of government inspections, according to an analysis of data from the city and the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. Fourteen of those 50 companies hadn’t been inspected even once in the past two years. Nationally, commercial trucks are pulled off the road after 21 percent of inspections.

许多设备维护保养不利使得情况更加糟糕。根据纽约市以及联邦汽车运输安全管理局的数据分析，从属于该市50家最大的（垃圾转运）公司的53%的垃圾车在经过政府检查后被宣布不安全并禁止上路。在过去两年中，这50家公司中有14家甚至没有接受过一次检查。在全国范围内，从属于商业垃圾转运公司的21%的垃圾车在检查后被禁止上路。



In real life, the need to move fast trumps traffic rules as often as not. On the July night I spent following Caban’s truck, it barreled past restaurant supply stores of Atlantic Avenue, made a right on Franklin Avenue, a left on Dean Street and another left on Kingston Avenue. Along the way, Caban and Bilal, his helper, sent bags sailing through the air from the curb into the street and from the street up into the truck’s back hopper. From Broccoli Farm to Superior Market, from Subway to Fulton Gourmet Deli, Caban made his way down the 500 stops on his route sheet, leaving a plume of hot garbage odor in the truck’s wake. Delis, liquor stores, laundromats, grocery stores, pharmacies, pizzerias, restaurants — Caban’s stops went from Crown Heights to Fort Greene and Bedford-Stuyvesant and Bushwick in Brooklyn, and then to the Lower East Side, Midtown, the Upper East Side, Harlem, East Harlem and Washington Heights in Manhattan.
在现实生活中，开快车往往比遵守交通规则更重要。7月，我花了一晚上的时间跟着卡班的卡车，它经过大西洋大道的餐厅供应商店，在富兰克林大道向右转，在迪恩街向左转，在金斯敦大街又向左转。一路上， 卡班和他的帮手比哈尔把垃圾包从垃圾箱弄到大街上，然后从大街上放进卡车的料斗。从西兰花农场到高级市场，从赛百味到富尔顿美食熟食店，卡班沿着他的路线表上的500个站点行驶，在卡车的尾迹中留下了一股热垃圾的气味。 熟食店，酒类商店，自助洗衣店，杂货店，药店，比萨饼店，餐馆– 卡班一站一站地从皇冠高地开到了布鲁克林的绿荫堡，贝德福德-斯图伊文森特，和布什维克，再开到曼哈顿的下东区，城中心，上东区，哈莱姆区，东哈莱姆区，和华盛顿高地。



Maneuvering a dumpster into the back of a garbage truck is a two-man job. When the driver is at the wheel, a “helper” often calls out directions from the back. (Michael Santiago for ProPublica)

把垃圾箱倒入垃圾车料斗是一项需要两人协同完成的工作。当驾驶员在操作时，经常需要一位帮手在车尾处帮忙喊出垃圾箱的位置。 （迈克尔·圣地亚哥为《大众利益》供图）

Setting up, as it’s called, is the foundation of successful — which is to say fast — driver-helper teamwork, and it requires both driver and helper to memorize the entire route sheet. The drill worked like this: Bilal jumped off the back stepper, raced ahead to a stop, and began to toss or drag garbage bags from the curb to the street. Caban, meanwhile, parked the truck to align its back hopper with the garbage and ran around back in time to help heave the bags from the street into the hopper.

整理，正如这个词的字面意思，是成功的基础– 这个词的意思是司机和帮手快速合作的能力。达到这一状态需要司机和帮手记住整个路线表。工作流程如下：比拉尔从车后的踏板上跳下来，跑步前进到一个停靠点，然后开始将垃圾袋从路边扔到街上。与此同时，卡班停好卡车，将其料斗对准垃圾，并及时跑过来帮着将垃圾袋从街上抛进料斗。



Baby-faced, with a ready grin, Bilal looked young for his 18 years and barely weighed more than some of the bags he was lifting. He wore a blue and white striped polo shirt, and neither he nor Caban wore reflective vests — they said #1 Waste hadn’t provided any safety equipment. Workers say that’s common in the industry. Caban and Bilal purchased their own thin black cloth work gloves with traction on the fingers (about $15 for a pack of three, which might last a week or two). Cloth won’t protect against the glass that often protrudes through the garbage bags, but nobody wears thick leather safety gloves. The grip is bad and slows you down; you’re liable to lose your hold on the slick plastic bags and punch yourself in the face.

娃娃脸的比拉尔脸上挂着一个“准备好了”的微笑，让他看起来比他的实际年龄（18岁）年轻很多，而且他几乎还没有一些他举起的垃圾袋重。他穿着一件蓝白条纹polo衫，他和卡班都没穿反光背心- 他们说第一垃圾回收公司没有为他们提供任何劳保用品。工人们说，这在业内很常见。 卡班和比拉尔购置了他们自己的手指上有强化抓握功能的橡胶垫的薄黑布工作手套（一包三副，大约15美元，可以用一周或两周）。布料挡不住经常出现的穿破垃圾袋露在外面的玻璃，但没有人戴厚厚的皮革安全手套。（这种手套）抓握功能太差，会让你慢下来;你也可能会（因为戴着皮革手套而）失去对表面光滑的塑料垃圾袋的抓握（而脱手），并因此（一拳）打在自己脸上。



In the early 1990s, Morgenthau’s office launched an undercover investigation of the industry. An NYPD agent posed as “cousin Danny” in a Brooklyn carting company, another posed as a building manager, and another as a Browning-Ferris Industries employee. Secret recordings confirmed the existence of the property-rights system and its control by mob members. The first of many rounds of indictments came down in 1995, and ultimately 72 defendants were charged: carting companies, owners, trade waste association leaders, the trade waste associations themselves, and the capos and soldiers they reported to.

20世纪90年代初，摩根索办公室启动了对该行业的秘密调查。纽约警察局的一名特工卧底布鲁克林的一家垃圾转运公司，乔装成“丹尼表哥”，另一名特工乔装成一座建筑的经理，另一名特工乔装成布朗宁-菲里司工业的员工。（他们得到的）秘密录音证实了（垃圾停靠点）产权制度的存在以及黑帮成员对其的控制。自1995年起，（摩根索办公室）开始一份接着一份地发布起诉书，最终有72名被告受到指控：垃圾转运公司，公司老板，垃圾贸易协会的领导人，垃圾贸易协会本身，以及其手下的大小马仔。

In 1996, the city passed Local Law 42, aimed at cracking the cartel, and created the licensing agency that is now known as the Business Integrity Commission to root out organized crime. The waste industry fought the reforms, but its suit against Local Law 42 was unsuccessful.

1996年，该市通过了旨在打击卡特尔的《第42条地方法》，并成立了现在被称为商业诚信委员会的监督机构，以铲除有的组织犯罪。垃圾工业曾试着与这场改革作斗争，但它对《第42条地方法》提起的诉讼没有成功。

The prosecutions brought down the cartel. Many leaders went to jail, had their assets seized and agreed to a lifetime ban, called a debarment, from the industry. Others were never prosecuted but still signed debarment agreements. Some people on BIC’s debarment list moved their companies out of town or sold them.

（检察官的）起诉摧毁了卡特尔。许多（卡特尔的）领导人进了监狱，被没收了资产，并同意终身不再踏入垃圾转运行业（行话叫做除名）。其他人未被起诉，但仍签署了除名协议。 一些名字出现在商业诚信委员会的除名名单上的人把他们的公司搬出了纽约城，或卖掉了公司。



For all the upheaval, many cartel-era companies survived the transition. For example, Liberty Ashes, Mr. T Carting and New Style Waste Removal Corp (now Boro-Wide Recycling) were all members of the trade waste associations in the days of the cartel, according to lists recovered from the associations’ offices during the execution of search warrants in 1995. “You couldn’t do business in this industry without being members of those associations,” explained Thomas N. Toscano. “Yes, we were members. Yes, we paid dues. And the only time they ever went there was every three years when the union negotiation came up.” The Brooklyn association pleaded guilty to criminal restraint of trade in 1997, and the Queens association pleaded guilty to a criminal antitrust violation in 1998.

经过这一系列动荡，许多卡特尔时代的公司在转型后幸存了下来。例如，根据1995年依靠搜查令从垃圾贸易协会办公室缴获的的名单，自由灰烬公司，T先生垃圾转运公司，以及新式垃圾清除公司（现名为波罗-韦德回收公司）都是卡特尔时代的垃圾贸易协会的会员。“如果没有协会会员资格，你就无法在这个行业开展业务，” 托马斯·N·托斯卡诺解释道。“是的，我们是会员。是的，我们支付了会费。但是他们只在每三年举行一次的工会劳资谈判的时候去我们那里。“布鲁克林区（垃圾贸易）协会在1997年承认犯下了行业控制罪行，而皇后区（垃圾贸易）协会在1998年对违反反垄断法的犯罪行为表示认罪。



In August 2016, the de Blasio administration released a study that recommended reining in the chaos of New York’s waste and recycling industry by dividing the city into zones. A company would make a bid to collect the garbage from all of the businesses in a given zone, and the city would pick the winner. According to the study, which was done by the Department of Sanitation and the BIC, zoning could reduce truck traffic by up to 68 percent and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 64 percent, leading to “cleaner air” and “safer streets,” as well as improve recycling rates, customer service and worker safety. A handful of cities, including Seattle, San Jose and Los Angeles, have introduced zoning. The efforts in Seattle and San Jose have yielded improved recycling rates and higher wages; the changes in Los Angeles are still being implemented.

2016年8月，白思豪政府发布了一份研究报告，建议通过将城市划分为不同的区域来控制纽约市垃圾转运和回收行业的混乱局面。公司可以竞标一个特定区域内的所有商业企业产生的垃圾，纽约市将选择中标者。根据卫生部和商业诚信委员会进行的研究，商业垃圾分区处理可以减少高达68％的垃圾车交通量， 64％的温室气体排放，从而实现“更清洁的空气”和“更安全的街道”，同时提高垃圾转运效率，客户服务体验和工人安全程度。几个城市，包括西雅图，圣何塞和洛杉矶，都引入了垃圾转运分区制度。西雅图和圣何塞经过努力已经成功提高了（可再生垃圾）回收率和（工人）工资水平；洛杉矶的（垃圾转运分区）制度仍在实施中。





In Caban’s view, the old days were the golden era of garbage. If a man worked himself to the bone, he could earn enough to buy a house and a car and send a kid to college. Working the night shift at a garbage company in New York basically had all the perks of working the day shift at the Sanitation Department. Almost every garbage company in the city was in the same union, Teamsters Local 813, and every three years, the union would rent out the ballroom at the Sheraton Hotel so garbage men could ratify the contract, which achieved routine raises, triple-time pay for snow duty, as well as paid holidays, vacations and a pension.

在卡班看来，过去是垃圾转运的黄金时代。如果一个人自己努力工作，他就可以赚到足够的钱买房子和车，然后送孩子上大学。在纽约的一家垃圾转运公司上夜班基本上可以得到与在卫生部工作相同的津贴。几乎城里所有的垃圾公司都属于同一个工会：本地卡车司机工会813。并且每隔三年，工会会租下喜来登酒店的宴会厅，垃圾行业的工人们可以就劳务合同达成共识，实现例行加薪，下雪天三倍工资，以及带薪节日，带薪假日和养老金。

That changed after the sweeping prosecutions of the 1990s. The gates were opened for a flood of non-union companies, and citywide collective bargaining became a thing of the past. “They got the mob out. But the workers got screwed royally,” said Teamsters organizer Allan Henry.

在20世纪90年代（工会组织）被大规模起诉后，情况发生了变化。（垃圾转运行业）向大量非工会公司打开了大门，全市垃圾行业劳工集体与资方谈判成为了过去式。“他们把暴徒赶走了。但工人们也全完了，“卡车司机工会组织者艾伦·亨利说道。



Workers at several LIFE 890 shops, meanwhile, have said they’ve either never heard of the union or rarely see its representatives. And to the extent that the union plays a role, it hardly seems like a champion for its workers’ wages. At Liberty Ashes, the LIFE 890 contract sets starting pay at $0.25 per hour above minimum wage in perpetuity.
与此同时，在几家工会在生命890控制下的公司中，工人们要么表示他们从未听说过工会，要么表示他们很少见到工会代表。在工会发挥作用的地方，它看起来又不像是支持为工人提高工资的那一方。在自由灰烬公司，生命890所要求的每小时工资只比法定最低工资高0.25美元。

Perhaps as a result of such stances, companies seem more enthusiastic about LIFE 890 than workers do. When LIFE 890 attempted to replace the Teamsters as the union at Planet Waste last year, company owner Tom Tolentino told the Daily News he favored LIFE 890, claiming the Teamsters pension plan could bankrupt the company. The workers then voted to join LIFE 890. (Tolentino declined to comment.)

也许作为（生命890）采取这种立场的结果，似乎公司们反而比工人们更欢迎生命890工会。当生命890去年试图取代卡车司机工会成为行星垃圾转运公司的工会时，公司老板汤姆·托伦蒂诺告诉《纽约每日新闻》，他当时支持生命890，声称卡车司机工会的退休金计划可能会使该公司破产。然后工人们投票加入了生命890.（托伦蒂诺拒绝就此事发表评论。）

In a wage-related class action lawsuit filed against Five Star in 2014, LIFE’s representative submitted an affidavit that supported the company rather than the workers the union ostensibly represents. “Nino [Tristani] is very quick to respond to my emails and address the grievances,” the union rep said of Five Star’s cofounder, “and is open to discussing the best way to resolve the issue.” Five Star settled with 61 workers in 2016 for $400,000 without admitting liability; LIFE 890 members were excluded from the settlement because the union’s contract mandates arbitration for grievances.

在2014年针对五星垃圾转运公司提起的与工资相关的集体诉讼中，生命890的代表向法庭提交了一份支持公司方的宣誓书，而不是像工会的字面意思那样代表工人的利益。“尼诺[·崔斯塔里]很快回复我的电子邮件并解决了不满，”工会代表说五星的联合创始人，“并且愿意讨论解决问题的最佳方法。”2016年，五星用400000美元与61名工人达成了和解，且不用承担任何责任;生命890工会的会员却被排除在了和解之外，因为工会的合同要求对申诉进行仲裁。



Independent unions have helped lower wages across the industry. In 1985, a helper started out making $16 an hour. At #1 Waste in 2016, Caban — a driver — made less.

独立工会的存在降低了整个行业的工资水平。1985年，一名帮手的起始工资是每小时16美元。2016年，在第一垃圾回收公司工作的卡班，一名垃圾车司机，赚的比这个还要少。



Broken glass is among the many perils for those picking up trash. (Michael Santiago for ProPublica)

碎玻璃是垃圾转运工人面临的众多危险之一。 （迈克尔·圣地亚哥为《大众利益》供图）