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Union: Workers Told to Use Urine Bags
Associated Press ^ | 3-20-08

Posted on 03/21/2008 1:25:57 AM PDT by kingattax

DENVER (AP) - Union officials in Colorado say a Qwest supervisor tried to cut down on lengthy bathroom breaks by telling workmen to use disposable urinal bags in the field.

The manager distributed the bags to 25 male field technicians, telling them not to waste time leaving a job site to search for a public bathroom, the Rocky Mountain News reported Thursday.

"We deal with a lot of silliness in corporate America, but you've got to admit, it takes the freakin' cake," Reed Roberts, an administrative director at the Communications Workers of America District 7, told the newspaper.

Roberts did not return a message left by The Associated Press.

Qwest spokeswoman Jennifer Barton said, "There's no policy whatsoever" requiring field technicians to use the bags.

"They are there for convenience, and they are there because employees asked for them," she said.

The union has not filed a grievance, Barton said, and she could not discuss the details of the allegations from the communications company's field worker in the sparsely populated area near Montrose.

Roberts said he had complained to Qwest's corporate labor relations department. He said the company has made an issue of the amount of time wasted by workers returning to the garage or central office for bathroom breaks.

But he said it appears this manager "took it upon himself to cut down on the time technicians spend to go to the bathroom."

Neither Roberts nor Barton gave the name of the supervisor involved.

Qwest and other companies have for years offered portable urinal bags to workers who could find themselves in the field far from a bathroom.

The bag's manufacturer, American Innotek, said it provides the bags to various industrial companies, including electric utilities, municipal public works and telephone companies.

Ryan Hiott, a regional director for Innotek, said the Federal Emergency Management Agency ordered 2.5 million bags after Hurricane Katrina.


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: qwest; unions; workplace
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1 posted on 03/21/2008 1:25:58 AM PDT by kingattax
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To: kingattax

Does a Union whiner pi$$ in the woods? Apparently not.


2 posted on 03/21/2008 1:29:27 AM PDT by RoadKingSE (How do you know that the light at the end of the tunnel isn't a muzzle flash?)
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To: kingattax

Funny, they complain about something they’re told to do while being paid that they do into 20oz Mountain Dew bottles on their own time.


3 posted on 03/21/2008 1:35:02 AM PDT by aruanan
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To: aruanan

And it’s not as though they’re being told to catheterize themselves.


4 posted on 03/21/2008 1:49:52 AM PDT by aruanan
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To: kingattax

Tree?


5 posted on 03/21/2008 2:18:23 AM PDT by wireplay
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To: kingattax
I am confident a Union Worker would NOT use a pee brake as an excuse to screw off on the job.

"Wear a diaper, Mary"

6 posted on 03/21/2008 2:46:54 AM PDT by BallyBill (Serial Hit-N-Run poster)
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To: wireplay
Where do they throw the bag when done? Never heard of a porta-potty?
7 posted on 03/21/2008 3:44:53 AM PDT by bikerman (_ _ . /_ _ _ /_ . . / / . . . . / . / . _ . . / . _ _ . / / . . _ / . . . //)
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To: kingattax

wow, union employees complaining about something.. In other news, the sun is coming up today.
I wish I got paid time and a half to piss in a bag because I’d never leave my desk.


8 posted on 03/21/2008 3:57:58 AM PDT by newnhdad
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To: kingattax

A bag? They’re apparently in the woods! Is it illegal to take a piss in the woods in Colorado?


9 posted on 03/21/2008 4:06:53 AM PDT by saganite
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To: kingattax
What about #2? Depends? Find a box? Use a different bag? Mix #1 and #2 together for a #3?
10 posted on 03/21/2008 4:12:12 AM PDT by Manic_Episode (Some mornings, it's just not worth chewing through the leather straps...)
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To: Manic_Episode

wow.. a #3 in bag.. How appetizing.


11 posted on 03/21/2008 4:15:38 AM PDT by newnhdad
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To: kingattax

Every worksite I have ever been on had porta john requirements once you have more than a handful of people.


12 posted on 03/21/2008 4:26:51 AM PDT by doodad
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To: kingattax

Now if they could do something about those smoke breaks....


13 posted on 03/21/2008 4:29:59 AM PDT by 4yearlurker (So long Myron. Call the Steelers games from heaven.)
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To: newnhdad
I once saw a #3 tree.

Some homeless folks were literally squatting on an abandoned property in Minneapolis where the plumbing was shut off, so they were doing their business in plastic bags and tossing them out the upstairs window where about 20 of these bags were caught in the tree outside. I should've taken a picture.

14 posted on 03/21/2008 4:30:30 AM PDT by Manic_Episode (Some mornings, it's just not worth chewing through the leather straps...)
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To: Manic_Episode
doing their business in plastic bags and tossing them out the upstairs window

I'm impressed. Lot of times they just do it on the floor and live in it.

15 posted on 03/21/2008 4:41:16 AM PDT by Right Wing Assault ("..this administration is planning a 'Right Wing Assault' on values and ideals.." - John Kerry)
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To: kingattax

Suppose the guy uses the bag in the back of his truck, someone looks in the window and sees him, then calls the cops.

The guy will be charged with a sex crime for urinating in public and is put on the sex offender registry for the rest of his life.


16 posted on 03/21/2008 4:56:23 AM PDT by webstersII
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To: BallyBill
pee brake

I'll stick with hydraulic brakes, thanks. :-)

17 posted on 03/21/2008 5:05:19 AM PDT by Larry Lucido (Still looking for UART at FX1050)
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To: webstersII

People used to ask about the coffee can w/a brazed on handle hanging in the back of the PG&E trucks. circa 1975


18 posted on 03/21/2008 5:07:48 AM PDT by RGSpincich
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To: kingattax
People pissing on station, you know they just don't care

Dont push me, cause I'm close to the edge
I'm trying not to loose my head
Its like a jungle sometimes, it makes me wonder
How I keep from going under

19 posted on 03/21/2008 5:18:58 AM PDT by csvset
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To: kingattax
Unions want to add to the national urine bomb crisis?


A road crew in Washington state collected these jugs of urine. In one year, a single, small county in the state collected 2,666 jugs.

20 posted on 03/21/2008 5:20:37 AM PDT by Libloather (March is Liberal Awareness Month.)
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