1000’s of Oakland Workers Get Pink Slips

Things are getting hot for many of the workers in the city of Oakland, as many more of them than needs be have to wait and find out if they are going to be the ones out of a job, or if they are among the lucky ones who get to stay. The city has given layoff notices to about 2,500 workers, despite the fact that they only need to layoff about 105 workers in order to make ends meet, and recoup for the significant amount of funding they have lost due to a recent court decision on the state level.

For those of you who have missed our earlier coverage of this issue here is an excerpt from our earlier coverage that will help to get you up to speed on the situation that the city, and its workers, are facing at the current moment:

“Until last month the state of California was paying cities in the state to help build affordable housing for residents of the state and to help fix blighted areas of the state. The state-subsidized redevelopment program was cut short by a California Supreme Court ruling that was made last month.

That ruling basically eliminated the program, cutting down the funding to cities sharply, and forcing them all to reconfigure their budgets. Oakland has been particularly hard hit by this change, because the city has about half of its area designated at redevelopment zones. The funding from those designations was being used to help pay for the salary of a number of staffers who work for the city.

Exactly how much money was cut from the city?

The estimated amount of funding lost is about $26 million. That money was used by the city to pay for the salaries of about 160 workers, all of whom were full time. That money includes the salaries of 17 police officers and almost 100 of the employees who work in the city’s Community and Economic Development Agency. Since the police officers cannot be eliminated, thanks to a union contract, the 17 jobs will need to be cut elsewhere.

Of course, job cuts are not the only thing that city is doing in order to help make ends meet. The administrator for the city, Deanna Santana, made an announcement this week that the city would put a moratorium on all new hires. The city is also requiring all of the departments to cut their budgets about 5 percent in order to make up from the loss of funding.”

While thankfully the city has found ways to reduce the number of jobs that need to be cut their method of laying off workers, with scatter shot notices to everyone is a bit unusual. Basically the workers are being told that if they do not get a letter rescinding their layoffs by early next month they are to assume that they have been laid off and simply not show up to work the next day. That system, while undoubtedly easier for the city does leave a lot of ambiguity, and room for errors.