The San Francisco Chronicle reports:
The city of Vallejo was in trouble long before James Moore bought a freshly butchered pig's head, mounted it on a Weber barbecue grill and wheeled it into a packed City Council meeting last week.
"Vallejo has been hogtied by its police and fire unions," Moore, a local businessman, said later. "The unions are killing the goose that laid the golden egg. Do I need to bring a dead goose to next week's meeting? I hope not."
Crippled by a free-falling economy, an inability to create tax revenue, management recklessness and a legacy of generous contracts for police officers and firefighters, officials are slashing senior center hours and closing firehouses in a frantic bid to keep Vallejo from becoming the first large city in California to declare bankruptcy.
Unions are the enemy of middle class people who aren't in unions.Look at these numbers:
Vallejo's base pay for firefighters is more than $80,000 a year. Last year, 21 of them topped $200,000 in salary and overtime, according to city payroll records.
They sure are special.
