I don't get it.

So, a bunch of the union 'employees' of Sacramento county went on strike last week. Most of them have returned to their jobs. But, the biggest holdouts are the garbagemen. They're still on strike. I, of course, think that unions are one of the biggest threats to employment in this country. They had their place about 100 years ago, kinda like the telegraph - a nice tool for the masses, but its time has past. I think that the county pharmacists are striking too. It's a pretty dangerous job working with all of those papers, pills and bottles. I mean, what if a bottle cap fell on the floor???? Somebody would have to pick it up! That's such a horrible work environment. Gee, if I drop something at work, it's only a broken foot and $100k in damaged hardware. But, I digress - back to the garbagemen. Oh, by the way, the union they're in is "Stationary Engineers Local 39." Um, as an engineer, I take offense to them calling themselves engineers. But, 'stationary'? I suppose that it's a reasonable moniker. After all, that's all a garbageman does now - he sits in the truck while the claw does all of the work for him. Perhaps they should change from 'stationary' to 'sedentary'. So, they're striking because the county wants to raise their monthly contributions to their health care coverage. Remember, this is a benefit, not something mandatory. For many days the contract details were a mystery. But, now they have come to light. Currently, the county pays 100% of the health benefits for its garbagemen. The county proposes lowering that to an 80/20 split over the next 5 years, meaning that the employees would pay 20% of the monthly premiums. But, along with that draconian contribution cut, comes a meager salary increase of 21-38% over 5 years (I guess that part of the variation is based on inflation - raises bases on cost of living, not something silly like skills). Right now, if the garbagemen were doing their jobs, they would be earning $42K/year, if they were senior level. Now, what, I ask, can a senior garbageman do that a junior one cannot? After the 5 years of the proposed contract, that same senior guy would be earning $52-58k/year. That raise is 2 to 4 times the proposed 20% health care contribution requested by the county.
Why in the world should a garbagemen receive that much pay? All that he has to do is drive a truck around town and make a claw pick up a garbage can, or maybe a dumpster. That's done with, what, a joystick?
So, here are two of my proposed solutions...
1. Let the garbagemen stay on strike. Turn garbage collection into community service. A few people could volunteer to collect the trash in their own neighborhoods once a month. They would be on a rotating basis.
2. You know all those community service hours that are given to minor criminals? Well, they already work the hours picking up trash on the highway. Why not have them pick up trash from houses & businesses too? It's free labor!
Having said that, I'm not trash talking (pun fully intended) garbagemen. They provide an important service to everyone. But, come on now! Is it really reasonable to provide 100% health care coverage to a garbageman? Does that job even require a high school degree?