Twelve-hour shifts drain a guy, especially when they're required for 12 straight days.
That's been the case for many City of Omaha snowplow workers. And it will be again today, with no break expected for them until midweek.
Workers ate rolls, drank pop, laughed and grumbled during the noon shift change Saturday inside the city's southeast maintenance facility, near 52nd and F Streets. Outside, the engines of orange trucks rumbled.
“They're running on empty,” union officer Don O'Neill said, referring to the men, not the trucks. “I think they've gone over and above, working all these hours.”
Freezing rain and a bit of snow hit Omaha Dec. 23. Some city workers began 12-hour shifts the day before in preparation for snowfall, street-maintenance managers said.
Since then, more than 12 inches of snow has fallen in the metro area. Omaha received more than 24 inches in December.
Crews are going through residential streets and heavily traveled roads to widen paths and attack trouble areas. The temperature was a bit below zero Saturday when the noon shift change occurred.
“The work we're doing now is slow and tedious,” Scott McIntyre, Omaha's street-maintenance manager, said. Some citizens are sympathetic. Some aren't.
“One will thank you, and another will cuss you,” one of the workers said.
McIntyre said he might be able to conclude the 12-hour shifts Wednesday, but that depends on whether adequate progress has been made and whether more snow comes. “People are tired,” he said.
McIntyre, who has been in his current job for five years, said he didn't know whether 12 straight days of 12-hour shifts was an Omaha record.
“We don't keep statistics on that,” he said. “It's certainly exceptional.”
About 150 street maintenance employees have worked on snow removal, plus some workers from city sewer maintenance, traffic maintenance and the construction division.
The employees are paid time-and-a-half for their hours beyond 40 a week, McIntyre said. Some asked for a day off Friday, Saturday or today, he said. Supervisors granted some of those requests.
One worker who had just completed his shift at noon said 12 hours of work took the delight out of Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve.
“We celebrated by going to sleep and getting up and doing 12-hour shifts,” he said. “We're just trying to get this taken care of in the most effective and quickest way that we can.”
Contact the writer:
444-1123, rick.ruggles@owh.com
Copyright ©2012 Omaha World-Herald®. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, displayed or redistributed for any purpose without permission from the Omaha World-Herald.
