Local Politics

Raleigh city workers demand pay raise

Some city workers protested outside Raleigh City Hall on Tuesday, demanding higher wages and what they called fair treatment.

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RALEIGH, N.C. — Some city workers protested outside Raleigh City Hall on Tuesday, demanding higher wages and what they called fair treatment.

After Raleigh police officers and firefighters successfully lobbied for more pay this year, workers who pick up the trash, repair city streets and take care of local parks said they deserve more as well.

"Solid waste workers, public works workers – workers that pick up the garbage, fix the streets, supply the water – they are essential personal also," said Nathanette Mayo, state president of UE Local 150, the North Carolina Public Service Workers Union.

Raleigh provided raises to about 2,100 city workers in April as part of a two-year process of overhauling the compensation system to make it more competitive. City spokesman John Boyette said in a statement that sanitation workers, for example, got raises of at least 3 percent in the spring.

But police and firefighters got a second bump in pay this summer as part of Raleigh's annual budget. They had lobbied for more than a year for higher wages, saying they were among the lowest-paid public safety workers in the region.

"I've had to get a part-time job to supplement income because it is not enough based off my city of Raleigh wage," sanitation worker Gerrand Ushery said.

Boyette said sanitation workers and others did get a second raise, ranging between 3.1 and 7.8 percent, at the end of September.

Mayo said the second round of increases was capped and doesn't take into account years of service. Also, some workers never got the promised raises, receiving instead a letter stating that the city made a mistake and that the compensation they were told they would receive "was not correct."

"Workers are really frustrated and rightfully upset and angry about how they are being treated by the city," Mayo said.

Boyette said city officials apologized for the mistake and resent letters to employees with the correct compensation information.

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