download:   Video Audio Get CD/DVD More Formats
Printer-friendly

Public Workers Battle City of Scranton After Pay Cut to Minimum Wage

Public sector workers in Scranton, Pennsylvania, are battling the city’s mayor in court after he unilaterally cut their pay to the minimum wage of $7.25 an hour amidst a financial crisis. Scranton Mayor Christopher Doherty cut his own pay and that of the workers after the city reportedly had only $5,000 in the bank last week. Unions representing the workers won an injunction against the pay cuts, but the city instituted them anyway. The unions are now asking a judge to hold the mayor and city in contempt, as well as challenging the city over unpaid overtime and disability pay cuts. Scranton is just one of a handful of cities facing public budget woes. On Tuesday, city leaders in San Bernardino, California, voted to file for bankruptcy after a report found the city faces a massive budget deficit. It’s the third city in California to seek bankruptcy protection in less than a month, following Mammoth Lakes and Stockton.

See all headlines for this show
Full Show | First Story >

Recent Shows More

Full News Hour
Watch Listen

Stories

Headlines

More for this show

Creative Commons License The original content of this program is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. Please attribute legal copies of this work to democracynow.org. Some of the work(s) that this program incorporates, however, may be separately licensed. For further information or additional permissions, contact us.