Workers Protest Mayor Sanders' Proposed Labor Contract

By Alison St John / Reporter, KPBS Public Broadcasting

Published May 12, 2008 at 11:48 AM PDT

This story was published more than 16 years ago.

Dozens of San Diego city's white collar workers rallied downtown today, They are protesting mayor Jerry Sanders proposed labor contract, which includes radical reforms in health and pension benefits.

(Photo: Labor workers pack San Diego City Council chambers to portest the mayor's proposed contract. Alison St John/KPBS )

Dozens of San Diego city's white collar workers rallied downtown today. They are protesting mayor Jerry Sanders proposed labor contract, which includes radical reforms in health and pension benefits. KPBS reporter Alison St John has more.

The Mayor wants to phase out the more generous pensions traditionally offered public sector workers, and replace them with the kind of pensions most people get in the private sector. Labor attorney Ann Smith urged the crowd rallying outside city hall to attend the meeting this afternoon, where city council will vote on the mayor's plan.

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Smith: There can be no other more important day in your work like tan today in letting the city council know , to encourage them to reject this -- the status quo should be carried forward for another year.

If the mayor's plan does not get five votes… the current contract will continue for another year, delaying pension reform.

Alison St John, KPBS News.

Alison St John

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Alison St John currently serves as a general assignment reporter and occasionally co-hosts KPBS Midday Edition. She fell in love with KPBS Radio when she arrived in San Diego in 1985 and first heard NPR. She has been a voice on KPBS Radio since 1989, and has served as a news reporter for radio, TV and the web, as well as anchoring, hosting, producing and editing. Alison has reported on stories about North County and was based in the KPBS' North County Bureau. Alison covered the metro beat during the critical period of the San Diego City pension crisis, and the education beat while Alan Bersin was the controversial Superintendent of San Diego City School District. She covered health when the industry was converting to managed care and told welfare reform stories in the late 1990s when Clinton was “ending welfare as we know it.” She has covered land use issues extensively, looking at the challenges of meeting a growing population while preserving community character, and developing a better transportation system to meet environmental concerns. She has done many stories on the military in San Diego, and the series she edited on the challenges veterans face returning from active duty to civilian life won “Best of Show” from the San Diego Society of Professional Journalists. She occasionally hosts the KPBS Roundtable and KPBS Midday Edition. Alison has won awards from the San Diego Press Club, the Society of Professional Journalists, the Associated Press TV and Radio Association, and the California Golden Mike Awards. Alison was born in Tanzania, brought up in Scotland, and earned her degree in psychology and sociology from Durham University in England. Her postgraduate diploma is in student counseling. She worked in England, Nigeria, Switzerland, Belgium, India, and Japan before moving to the United States in 1981. She now lives in Oceanside and enjoys how her community is growing and changing.