MAKING A MUSEUM: Materializing Regimes of Value with the NYC Department of Sanitation

•57 = The sign-in/sign-out sheet; used at the start and end of every shift

•350 = the form that all sanitation workers must carry, fill out, and turn in at the end of their shift. Different colors are for different tasks -- collection, recycling, sweeping. It's used to record mileage traveled, fuel used, route percentage completed, among other details.

•air mail = while working the route, this is garbage thrown at the truck from windows above

•baskets = an assignment to empty public litter baskets along a defined route. No truck money involved. When you finish the route, you go back to the stop and start over. It's the bottom-of-the-list assignment; junior workers are stuck on baskets.

•banged = disciplined. If you get banged, it means that someone above you has filed a written complaint about you.

•beat = a word that defines seniority; "I got you beat" means "I have more time on the job than you do" and therefore you'll get first pick at choice assignments.

•black and running = a description of a street or highway condition after snow has been cleared. The 'black' means the asphalt; 'running' means that traffic is moving unimpeded. This phrase was banned a few years ago.

•blood money = overtime for working snow once the novelty has worn off and it's just the relentlessness of too many hours and no days off

•board = the assignments board, which changes from day to day. Sanitation workers scrutinize it at the start and end of their shifts; it tells them what their doing and with whom they are doing it. It is ruled by seniority.

•body bags = the big (120 gallon), long garbage bags that come from apartment buildings with compactors. They look like they could hold a body. Also called sausage bags (see below)

•broom qualified = someone who is trained to operate a mechanical broom

•bulk = collecting dead refrigerators, stoves, other large appliances, furniture, etc.

•bull dick or bull prick = the large pin that holds the plow apparatus onto the truck

•bumper cars = a nickname for the mechanical broom

•CDL = commercial driver's license; a Class B CDL is mandatory for getting the job as a sanitation worker

•chart or chart day = day off. If you "get" your chart, it means you work it and will be paid time and a half. If you don't get your chart, it means you don't work on your scheduled day off. Chart days rotate from one week to the next. You always have off on Sunday (unless there's some special occasion or in the event of snow), but because your chart day rotates, you almost never get two days off in a row.

•chasing garbage = what happens after a big snowstorm, when collection must be neglected as sanitation workers clear the streets of snow. Depending on how big the storm is, it can take weeks of chasing garbage to get caught up.

•cut down = the DSNY dump truck

•detached = describes a worker who is assigned to a new location but not permanently. Let's say, for instance, a supervisor is assigned to Queens East 10 garage but then is detached to Safey & Training at Floyd Bennett Field. His home within the DSNY is still Queens East 10, but he works at Floyd Bennett indefinitely.

•dump out = a location that is used as an illegal dump site, often along railroad tracks, under overpasses, or in abandoned lots

•FEL = front-end loader, used for filling spreaders with salt (among other things)

•flats = collection from big bag stops; usually high-density residential neighborhoods with big apartment buildings

•get it and go = an old practice of cleaning the route, dumping the truck, and then leaving for the day. A crew that ran it up (see below) and had a few heavy flat stops (see above) could be done in a few hours. Get it and go is no longer allowed.

•getting it up = getting the garbage up off the street. Someone who can get it up is a good worker

•G.U. = garage utility person; a sanitation worker who is assigned to the garage to help the garage supervisor

•grounded = you can work, but you can't drive equipment.

•hi-lo = forklift

•House of Pain = nickname for the Bronx 7 garage, where the average weight on the day shift is 20 tons (which means a crew must do a load and a piece; see below)

•house-to-house = collecting in a residential, more suburban kind of neighborhood; common in Queens and Staten Island

•jumping the route = a broom operator who leaves his regular route for another one

•laying pipe = working extremely slowly (slower than walking backwards; see below. Also has a sexual connotation)

•load = a truck's worth of garbage
•load and a piece = a truck filled (also called 'loaded out' -- see next entry), dumped and then partially loaded again
•loaded out = a full truck; the end of a truck's capacity. "I'm loaded out" means "My truck is full."

•LODI = line-of-duty injury. "He went LODI" means he is out because of an injury sustained on the job

•MLP = Mechanized Litter Patrol; a fancy phrase for cleaning up messes in odd places, like under an overpass or along a side-street. It can involve bulk pick-up.

•mongo = objects plucked/rescued from the trash

•mutual = trading chart days. For example, Haidy is chart on a Tuesday and I'm chart on a Friday but she needs Friday off so we swap. I'd explain to our supervisor or to our superintendent, "Haidy and I did a mutual."

•O route = a broom operator's route on Wednesdays and Saturdays, when there is no alternate side parking. 'O' stands for 'ordinary' (though some folks say it stands for 'other).

•on the arm = unpaid labor. For instance: "Are you being paid for this work?" "Hell, yes! I'd never do it on the arm!"

•out of town = having to work for the day at a garage (or location) that’s not your home garage (or location). Depending on where you are assigned, you can pick up hours.

•PAP = stands for 'Policies and Procedures" but is used to mean a drug and alcohol test. When the 'PAP Wagon,' a.k.a. the piss wagon, shows up a garage, sanitation workers are randomly chosen to take a breathalyzer test and to pee into a cup. In the event of an accident, sanitation workers are also PAP'ed.

•picking up = where you work. Someone working in the Village around the University would say, "I pick up NYU." Someone working in Brooklyn 6 district would say, "I pick up Park Slope."

•picking up hours = getting time in the books that you can take off with pay; this happens for a sanitation worker when he or she is sent out of town (see above) *and* out of the zone that includes her or his home garage. Officers at the rank of chief don't get paid for overtime; instead, they pick up hours.

•Ponderosa = old name for Queens East 11 garage, when the trucks and other equipment were parked on a big lot.

•premium = a double-time day, like Sunday or a holiday

•p.m. = periodic maintenance

•red-lined = the line drawn under the last name on the 57; anyone who signs after the red line is drawn is counted as late

•relay = driving a full truck to the dump, emptying it, driving it back to the garage. New hires often start with relays; they'll spend the shift just driving full trucks, dumping them, returning them, taking out another truck.

•resumed = what must happen before you can return to work after a medical leave. "Have you been resumed? Has the clinic resumed you? No? Then you can't work."

•rib = a segment of the truck body

•rocket = a written complaint (as in a foreman telling a sanitation worker, "If you don't clean your route today, I'll give you a rocket."

•RoRo = roll-on/roll-off truck, used for some kinds of containers

•running or running it up = working very fast

•salad wagon = collection truck (an old term, not used so much any more)

•sausage bags = the big garbage bags (approx. 120 gallons) that come from large apartment complexes with compactors. Shaped like sausages. Also called body bags (see above)

•schranked = If you get schranked, if means you're paid truck differential (also called truck money; see below) even if you don't work the truck. This only happens when you are supposed to work collection or recycling but you are reassigned, not by your choosing.

•SCR = Street Cleaning Regulations, a.k.a. alternate side parking rules

•segments = bristles of the gutter brooms on a mechanical broom

•sitting bull = back in the day when there were three men on a truck, the driver never got out and never helped load; he was called the sitting bull.

•stroke the book = what the foremen (supervisors) do when they are filling out the time book. The stroke is a line drawn diagonally from corner to corner of a little box in the ledger; above the stroke is one set of information, below the stroke is another, all in codes that correspond to different payroll lines (overtime, snow, night shift, etc.)

•swing a load = emptying only part of a truck at the dump and returning it to the garage with garbage still in it. Not done any more because trucks are weighed when they arrive at the dump and when they leave. In the old days, they were weighed only when they arrived.

•super's clerk = a sanitation worker who serves as the secretary and right-hand person for the garage superintendent. Often sets the board; troubleshoots on behalf of the super; fields phone calls, tracks paperwork, keeps the super administratively organized. A good super's clerk makes the difference between a disorganized and a well-run garage.

•time frames = when and how long breaks and lunch are. Schedules for such things are supposed to be tightly followed; if you are outside of or if you don't watch your time frames, you can get banged (see above)

•tissue = a desk job, an easy job; often (but not always) assigned to a sanitation worker coming off medical leave who can work but isn’t quite ready to be behind the truck again.

•truck money = the extra pay that a sanitation worker earns when assigned to collection or recycling. This was negotiated as part of the deal with the city when crews went from three-man to two-man in the mid-1980s.

•walking backwards = working very slowly

•work out = how much work is left at the end of a shift. "There are three loads out in my section," a supervisor might tell his superintendent. This means there are three trucks' worth of trash still to be collected.

•wrecker = tow truck. A sanitation worker who is wrecker qualified must have a Class A CDL (commercial driver's license). The regular CDL necessary for the job is only a Class B.

•zone, in or out of = where you're sent when you go out of town (see above). If you're out of zone, you pick up hours (see above), but in zone, you don't.