City employees rally against pay cuts

MOBILE, Ala. (WALA) - Mobile city employees aren't holding their tongues when it comes to proposed cuts to their salary. Some public works employees are rallying against a pay cut that could be as much as 15 percent.

Wade Dawkins said he's barely making ends meet and now the city is talking about cutting his salary.

"Awe man that would send me in the hole, already hard enough. I should start looking for another job," said Dawkins.

Dawkins has been with the city's sanitation department for nearly 20 years, so has Michael Beech.

The men said they understand about living on a tight budget but slashing salaries isn't solving anything.

"We don't mind saving money. We can show them, just come talk to our department," shared Beech.

Beech said he makes more than 800 stops a day, the national average he said is around 600.

"That's not even the highest route. The highest is 1,000 houses," said Beech.

Mayor Jones said he welcomes all ideas, but trying to cut $14.4 million from the budget without cutting any jobs isn't easy.

"Very difficult task, never want to reduce someone's salary if you can help it. Nor do you want to cut to bare bones and that's where we are right now," said Mayor Jones.

Jones said it has taken three months to try and balance the budget.

"We've cut everything we can, and still maintain operations," said Jones.

The city council is expected to vote on the pay cuts at Tuesday's meeting.

Barbara Drummond said there is no mandate from the mayor's office that says city workers can't attend.

However, the police chief has ordered that officers cannot take vacation time or comp time to attend the meeting.