Demonstrators fight on behalf of furloughed, laid off city workers

The City of Philadelphia has already begun the tough task of laying off city employees. Dozens of demonstrators put on a socially distanced day of action of the west side of city hall on Tuesday with the slogan and hashtag, "No Services, No City." They were fighting on behalf of furloughed and laid off city workers.

Mayor Jim Kenney says that based on the reality of the city’s current economic situation it had to happen.

“We tried to minimize the impact best we could. We have resources available for employees to be able to try and get them a portal to work through so that they can look for work in making sure we give them the right advice on unemployment benefits and whatever’s available from the state,” said Mayor Kenney.

The mayor also added that it’s a decision that must be made in order to keep things as balanced as possible.

“We can’t run a deficit. We have to have a balanced budget and balanced five year plan. Some of the suggestions that other elected officials are throwing out there in our budget would result in even more layoffs because of our contractual situations with our employees. Which would wind up having to lay off police and firefighters which I’m not interested in doing," he said.

Khyrn Lammers is a leap teen specialist and says that these layoffs impact the youth of the city the most.

“Recently, I’ve seen all our adult staff get laid off. I’ve seen youth I really care about what happens to the youth of the city. I feel like we have pushed the burden of our future and the youth are our future in Philadelphia. We push the burden constantly on them.”

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