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Hundreds Of San Jose City Hall Workers Facing Layoffs

SAN JOSE (KCBS) - Hundreds of workers at San Jose City Hall were bracing Tuesday to learn whether they would be out of a job.

Some 6o0 positions, about 10 percent or the workforce, are set to be be laid off by July.  The job cuts were the result of San Jose's $115 million budget shortfall.

KCBS' Mike Colgan Reports:

"Some of those positions are open because people have retired or moved on, but we will have hundreds of people who are in those jobs that are potentially going to be laid off as we go through this budget cycle," said San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed.

He warned the number of layoffs could climb higher still.

"The city council has directed the city manager to assume that we're going to get 10  percent concessions from all employees. So the 600 positions that we are looking like we're going to have to eliminate assume that we get 10 percent concessions from everybody," Reed explained. "So if we don't there will be more job cuts on top of the 600."

So far, only 4 of the 11 unions have agreed to the wage and benefits concession.

Not surprisingly, that meant a sense of sadness permeated San Jose City Hall this week.

"A lot of heads hanging, a lot of heads hanging down low," described a man who identified himself only as Paul, who has worked for the city for more than five years. "You know a lot of people are depressed, if they're not directly impacted, their friends are. So it's pretty sad when you start seeing, if it's not you, it's your friends, people you've known for a long time, start losing their jobs and they have families. It's very depressing, sure, it's a pretty sad place right now."

He was far from convinced that his job was safe.

"Any time they start you know, laying people off, regardless of seniority, you know unless, you've either been here 30 years and you're close to retirement or you never know, they start laying off hundreds of people your seniority level can go down really quick."

(© 2011 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

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