Patricia Nazario
May 18, 2009
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Los Angeles city workers hope the L.A. City Council will offer them early retirement instead of layoffs, unpaid days off, and pay cuts to help balance the city's budget. Hundreds of workers spent their lunchtime today protesting in front of L.A. City Hall. KPCC's Patricia Nazario was there.

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Patricia Nazario: Demonstrators along Main Street wore white T-shirts with the slogan "Proud to Serve L.A." They waved signs that read: "A Better Way for L.A."

[Trucks honking]

Nazario: Sanitation and maintenance workers slammed on their horns in support of the protest as they circled the block in yellow, green, and blue service trucks.

Barbara Maynard: We have a way to deal with this budget problem. It does not include layoffs and it does not include a 10 percent pay cut for workers.

Nazario: Barbara Maynard is with the Coalition of L.A. City Unions. She says the coalition represents 22,000 city employees.

Maynard: We're talking about 911 operators, we're talking about the people who work with the kids in the parks after school and the libraries. We're talking about clerical workers.

Nazario: Those workers include Aura Cajiuat, a senior clerk typist at the Public Works Building downtown. She's 64 years old with 30 years on the job. The coalition's pushing for early retirement and Cajiuat thinks that's a good idea.

Cajiuat: Because its gonna be lesser people on the line for the unemployment and it'll help the younger people that just bought houses and that have young kids. They don't have to look for a job if the older ones retire.

Nazario: Protest organizers say an early retirement plan would yield immediate savings close to $240 million. That's more than half of L.A.'s projected deficit of more than $530 million.