City workers protest privatizing waste services

The workers gathered Blackstone and Shaw Sunday urging people to call city hall and voice their opposition to the plan.

The city is considering whether to outsource commercial garbage collection to a private company which would collect trash from businesses and apartments using fewer employees.

Under the plan, the city would collect a $2 million franchise fee, but about 120 city workers could lose their jobs.

"We come to work every day, we do a good job. We do it cheaper, safer and better than any company out there. And not only that, we do it cleaner. We use clean burning trucks. Our trucks are all natural gas. You think the privates are going to bring in natural gas trucks? I don't think so, it's too expensive," Roosevelt De Leon said.

The city is expected to vote on the plan next month. In the past, it has said its hopeful the private company would hire about half of the city employees.