I suppose I got it from my dad -- the whole notion that labor, hard work deserved to be honored and, even more certainly, to be rewarded with fair wages. Doesn't always seem to be the case these days, does it?

Along these lines, Dallas City Council Member Angela Hunt captured my attention last week when she rode on a sanitation truck for part of a day out in the Pleasant Grove section of Dallas. (Click here for to read Sam Merten's entire story at The Dallas Observer blog. The photo here comes from this source. I'd love to hear your reactions, as always. By the way, thanks for the report, Sam!)

Ms. Hunt believes that city employees should be paid a living wage. That concept is increasingly elusive to more and more Dallasites, as is true across the nation today.

As I read the Observer's blog on the story, I was blown away by the disparity in pay between the drivers and the trash movers working in the back of the vehicles. Drivers earn between $11 and $18 an hour and are city employees. The trash haulers on the street and back of the truck are "temporary workers," earning minimum wage and often working over 12 hours daily. Again, check out the blog for more amazing and disheartening details about fair wages, working conditions and Dallas sanitation services.

Hunt says she was told that nearly 90 percent of the trucks don’t have air conditioning, and opening the windows isn’t an option because the low-hanging branches smack the drivers on the head. The branches also make it difficult to ride on the truck, forcing them to walk behind it through rough spots. After a couple hours on the job, she was exhausted, while garbage collectors can work up to 14 hours a day. -- Sam Merten, Dallas Observer

One more fact: many of the guys "on the back" are ex-offenders who have a hard time finding work anywhere else. As a result, they are left take jobs like this earning low wages. Can anyone spell recidivism?

Ms. Hunt, you are correct when you say, “Let’s pay these guys a decent wage so that they aren’t forced back into crime to make ends meet.”

I won't tell you about the city's idea regarding GPS systems and sanitation trucks! You'll need to read Sam's story to pick that one up.

But instead of giving these workers a fighting chance, the city wants to track them with GPS to make sure they aren’t slackin’ off or wasting gas. Maybe a day working on the back of a garbage truck would change their minds. -- Sam Merten, Dallas Observer

Again, I'll wait for your responses.

I'll tell you one thing for sure. My dad wouldn't be pleased. And, frankly, I believe he's in a better place to judge such things than he was a few months ago.