Public workers picket outside the Omni Providence Hotel Monday. Photo by Steve Klamkin, WPRO News.
By Steve Klamkin and Kim Kalunian, WPRO News
Roughly 200 union fire fighters and other public workers picketed outside the Onmi Providence Hotel, formerly the Westin, in Downtown Providence Monday.
The workers were there to protest against General Treasurer Gina Raimondo, who was headlining a financial event at the hotel.
Paul Valletta, a representative of the Rhode Island State Association of Fire Fighters, stood outside the hotel with his fellow union members carrying signs that read, "67 Year Old Fire Fighters Equal Disaster." The signs made reference to the new increased retirement age put into place under Raimondo's pension reform plan.
Valltetta said public workers were never consulted when it came to pension reform.
“We were never at the table and we certainly never agreed with them,” Valletta told WPRO.
He said the point of the protest was to show the public what Raimondo had done to public workers and their previously promised pensions.
“I think it’s in the interest of firefighters to support pension reform because they’re the ones that’ll be out of a pension,” Raimondo said after her speech at the Symposium on Distressed Municipalities.
“Most of the people in there think what she did to people was a good thing,” said Valletta, referring to the crowd of roughly 200 investment and government professionals that attended the symposium.
Valletta said he and his fellow union members plan to protest against Raimondo and her pension reform plan “right 'til she runs for governor and hopefully loses.”
