Union workers hold rallies urging for budget

By: Scott Gilbert

Unionized state workers held rallies and informational pickets across Pennsylvania Tuesday to urge leaders to hammer out a budget.

By: Scott Gilbert

Unionized state workers held rallies and informational pickets across Pennsylvania Tuesday to urge leaders to hammer out a budget.

Listen:
[audio: 090714sgrally.mp3]

With a spending plan late by two weeks and counting, this lunchtime rally at the state Capitol was meant to send a message to lawmakers and Governor Rendell: get to work.

David Fillman, executive director of AFSCME Council 13, says the workers will suffer due to no fault of their own.

Fillman: These employees who have nothing to do with the state budget negotiations are going to suffer because all of the parties have dropped the ball.

Tens of thousands of workers will see lessened paychecks this Friday, and, without a budget in place, a vast majority won’t get paid at all after July 24th.

The Capitol event and similar demonstrations at work sites across Pennsylvania protested a Rendell administration policy that requires employees to work without pay as the state budget remains in limbo.