They’re tired of being treated like garbage.
Impatient motorists will soon face tougher punishment if they try to trash a sanitation worker on the job.
Starting tomorrow, the penalty for assaulting the city’s uniformed sanitation collectors is being increased from a misdemeanor to a felony — the same as for striking a cop or firefighter.
“We want to let everyone know we’re not going to be punching bags out on the streets any more,” declared Harry Nespoli, president of the Uniformed Sanitationmen’s Association, at a press conference outside City Hall.
Officials reported 42 assaults on the sanit force last year, up from 17 in 2010.
Most involved motorists who couldn’t wait a few extra minutes as collection trucks made their rounds and blocked their vehicles.
Hugh Hicks, a sanitation veteran, said he’s gotten into confrontations “at least 10 times” over the last 13 years.
Most recently, Hicks said he and his partner were making routine pickups when a woman emerged from a parked car, complained about being blocked in and suddenly struck him in the chest.
“She felt like she could hit me, like this is nothing,” Hicks recalled.
Brooklyn DA Charles Hynes vowed to prosecute attacks on sanit workers as vigorously as those on other uniformed workers.