On the heels of the Durham City Workers Union, UE local 150, staging silent protest at Durham City Council Meeting Monday, workers who are members of the Raleigh City Workers Union, UE local 150, will be speaking-out against Raleigh City Manager Russell Allen's proposed budget because:

• The proposed increases in healthcare costs mean workers and members of their family will die because cannot afford health care costs.
• City should go into general fund balance, now at 14% savings, just as workers are forced to go into their savings in these tough times.
• Workers families and communities already facing mass unemployment cannot afford any more attacks
• With a growing city population, workers are already understaffed and forced to work faster. With cuts in personnel there will also be cuts in essential services to Raleigh residents' health and safety. Trash will pile up in streets and sidewalks causing public health risk, streets we be fixed less often, and summer youth services will be badly cut.

The group said Allen should have refused his pay raise.

"This is the first year in a long time that workers have not received the annual 1.5 percent cost-of-living adjustment. Routes are already too long with sprawling city limits, and the cuts in 85 positions is unacceptable," they said in a press release.

UE 150 Press Conference Wednesday at 5:15pm at gate of Solid Waste Services at 400 W. Peace St, Raleigh.