San Jose unions representing firefighters, police officers, architects, engineers, maintenance supervisors, mid-managers, electrical workers and building inspectors proposed $25 million in pay concessions and other cuts to help solve the city budget deficit. One of the proposals includes employees paying 5-7.5% more of their pension. The City Council wants 10% concessions from the unions, with half of the cuts begin permanent. A spokesman for the city said that they needed more and longer lasting concessions to really help solve the budget crisis. The mayor also said that the proposal must be evaluated to make sure they are acceptable, citing a proposal by the firefighters that he says will leave them overworked. Without concessions from the workers, city employees will be laid off. A spokesman for the unions say that they believe that their proposal is more than fair and that they hope to come to an agreement.
See "San Jose labor unions propose $25 million in pay concessions to avoid layoffs", John Woolfolk and Tracy Seipel, San Jose Mercury News, May 17, 2010