Workers protest ‘payless paydays’

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Pennsylvania state employees turned out by the hundreds Tuesday to protest a Rendell administration policy requiring them to work without pay as long as the state budget remains in limbo.

“This ain’t funny, we want our money!” chanted about 500 workers who joined in a lunchtime rally on the front steps of the Capitol as the state government finished its second week without a budget in place.

Dozens of protesters, many wearing an orange sticker identifying them as “budget hostages,” went inside afterward to march briefly through the halls where legislators were gathered.

Across the state, labor unions organized similar demonstrations and informational picketing at state offices, prisons and other work sites to underscore employees’ displeasure with “payless paydays.”

“We just want to turn the heat up” on budget negotiators, said David R. Fillman, executive director of Council 13 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, the largest state-worker union, which represents about 44,000 state workers.

In Pittsburgh, about 75 employees chanted and carried signs. One said, “Mr. Rendell, I want a paycheck, not a rain check.”