BURLINGTON — City employees are worried about possible layoffs and furloughs as the city considers budget cuts due to lost revenue caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
The city is anticipating a $10 million loss in revenue in fiscal year 2021 caused by the pandemic.
Damion Gilbert, president of the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees Local 1343, appeared at Monday night’s city council meeting and said that city workers continue to have “grave concerns” about possible cuts.
“Although our members continue to offer public services to the people of Burlington, we do so under the shadow of worry our jobs are still at risk, we worry we could still face layoffs in the months ahead, and that as the pandemic continues, we could find ourselves without the means to support our families,” he said. “This is not right, this should not happen, this cannot happen.”
Gilbert said that Mayor Miro Weinberger had reached out to city unions requesting that they reopen their contracts with the city and make other economic concessions.
The city told union officials that they would face layoffs if they did not agree to open their contracts, Gilbert said. The unions rejected the city’s request to re-open the contracts, he said.
Weinberger said Monday that the city’s budget picture had modestly improved in recent weeks, and the city had been able to identify other cuts that would prevent employee layoffs or furloughs — at least, for now.
He said that the city had withdrawn its request to the city unions to reopen their contracts.
“I have not wanted to, and have not, unlike many peers in executive roles in city government, laid off a single employee, including employees that, because of the nature of their job, were unable to perform those jobs,” Weinberger said.
Gilbert said that despite the city’s withdrawal of its request to reopen the contracts, workers continue to be concerned. He said the union asked Weinberger to put in writing that no union members would suffer layoffs as the result of the economic impact of Covid-19.
“If we continue to put our health on the line to deliver services to Burlington, it is only fair that we do so knowing the economic future is secure for us,” Gilbert said.
The city had no desire to reopen union contracts or lay off city employees, Weinberger said. However, he said he was unable to say definitively that the city would be able to avoid layoffs or furloughs.
“We haven’t had to have any layoffs or furloughs to date, but I said I couldn’t guarantee that because I thought that was the honest thing to do,” he said. “We are in a moment of tremendous uncertainty.”
Gilbert said that city employees, members of his union, had been keeping the city running during the pandemic.
“We kept the roads open, we kept the water flowing, we kept your buildings clean. We kept all essential public services going during this time of crisis,” he said. “We did our part, we did amazing.”
Weinberger and several councilors expressed gratitude to city workers who had been working throughout the pandemic.
Gilbert said that city workers were still planning an informational picket June 9 at City Hall to express their concerns about future layoffs.
“We will never sacrifice the public good for perceived short-term gain,” he said.