The police and firefighters unions of San Bernardino, Calif., will ask a judge later this week to let them sue the bankrupt city over pay and benefit cuts, arguing that officials have abused bankruptcy laws to impose concessions on safety workers, Reuters reported yesterday. A lawyer for the city's police union, Ron Oliner, yesterday told Bankruptcy Judge Meredith Jury that after recent cuts to police pay, pension benefits and staffing levels, morale in the force was at a "low ebb" and they had no alternative but to try to sue the city in state court. The large and growing burden of public pension debt, in addition to salaries and overtime—particularly for San Bernardino's safety workers—has become a prominent issue in the city's bankruptcy as it seeks to cut costs. Earlier this month arbitrated negotiations between the city and the unions for the police, firefighters and public employees broke down. The following day the city council voted to impose pay and benefit cuts on the workers.
