This is an archived article and the information in the article may be outdated. Please look at the time stamp on the story to see when it was last updated.

VACAVILLE-

By the end of the week, 91 Vacaville city employees with Local 39 will get their salaries decreased by 21 percent.

The cuts were announced in a City Council meeting Tuesday evening.

“I was doing numbers, and I cannot do lunches anymore,” traffic light maintenance employee Marc York said outside City Hall Wednesday, while he and others were picketing.

But city officials say they had been negotiating with Local 39 in good faith. City spokesperson Mark Mazzafero told FOX40 the cuts were necessary to have reserve funding in the event of an emergency.

“They were offered an opportunity to spread it out over 2 to 3 years. They did not accept that offer,” Mazzafero said.

The city decreased salaries by 10 percent for all 471 employees about a year ago. Mazzafero says everyone agreed to the cuts, except for Local 39.

“They haven’t paid anything for over a year, so they are catching up with us,” he said.

Now, Mazzafero says Local 39 workers owe the city double – for the past year and for the next year.

In total, the cuts will mean about $1.6 million for the city over then next 10 months.