For more than four decades, Maurice Queen has held one of the most coveted jobs in the District government.
He’s not deputy mayor or chief technology officer. He doesn’t even have a desk.
He’s a trash collector. And in a city where good paying jobs are hard to come by for those without college degrees, that makes Queen and his colleagues an object of envy.
“It is a great job,” said Queen, who’s 64 and has no immediate plans to retire, “and a lot of people would love to have it.”
A spot on the back of a garbage truck has become a lofty perch, especially during an economic downturn that has hit other blue-collar jobs in construction, manufacturing and transportation hard. Online applications for city jobs are up 28 percent since 2008, and a sanitation job is one of the hardest to get.
The 241 men and women who work along 55 routes and collect nearly 100,000 tons of trash and recycling each year, know they’re fortunate. The work can be back-breaking and potentially hazardous. Workers have run across everything from skinned deer remains to phosphoric acid. But the pay — an average salary of $36,000 a year, plus health and other benefits — is good, and the hours are even better. As long as the weather and traffic cooperate, sanitation workers who start work at 6:30 a.m. can be done by the time most desk jockeys are pondering their second cup of coffee.
“You can be finished by 10, 11 o’clock in the morning. That right there is the big draw,” said Barry Nix, who has been a District sanitation worker for 25 years. “You can get home to see your kids.”
Or get a second job. Queen, for example, is known as “The Pony Man” because he runs a horse-rental business on the side.
Twenty-plus-year tenures are commonplace inside the Department of Public Works’ Solid Waste Division. (In Montgomery, Fairfax and other places outside the city, garbage collectors often work for private contractors, not the county.) Most D.C. employees with that many years on the job are drivers or supervisors. Getting in the door means landing an entry-level “technician” position, riding on the outside of the truck. And there are only a few openings a year.
With 42 years on the job, Queen is the Cal Ripken of District garbage collectors. There are guys who have worked in waste collection longer, but not just as a technician the way Queen has.
“I enjoy throwing trash,” said Queen, a bearded, barrel-chested former professional bull rider who lives in Hyattsville. “It keeps you active. And I’m an outdoor person.”
Relentless pace
Queen has been around so long that he predates the arrival of the Supercan and trash compactor trucks. When he started, there were five men on a truck: a driver, two in rear of the vehicle and two more in the alley hoisting cans. Without a compactor, the truck filled up quickly, and it could take five or six loads to finish one route.
“Some of these guys today wouldn’t last,” Queen said.
Hauling trash nowadays resembles assembly line work. The 85-gallon Supercans roll onto a lift in the back of the truck, then tilt open with the pull of a lever.
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