Aaron Glantz/The Bay Citizen

Mayor Jean Quan addresses the crowd at a rally in support of Wisconsin workers April 4, 2011 in front of Oakland's City Hall. She was booed when she mentioned impending layoffs.

Hundreds of East Bay trade unionists shouted down Oakland Mayor Jean Quan as she attempted to speak at a “unity” rally to mark the 44th anniversary of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. 

Quan, whose city faces a $46 million deficit in the next fiscal year (along with a $6.5 million shortfall for this one), was booed when she told workers at the noontime demonstration that there would be new rounds of government layoffs.

The boos began when Quan was trying to differentiate her approach from Wisconsin’s Republican Governor, Scott Walker, who sparked a national debate when he sponsored legislation that would make it illegal for most government workers to bargain collectively.

“We will have layoffs,” Quan said, “but they will come as a part of collective bargaining.”

But by the time she got to the part about collective bargaining a chorus of boos rendered her speech virtually inaudible.

The boos appeared to show a schism between the labor leaders who invited Quan to headline their rally and rank-and-file workers impatient with years of government cut-backs.

Quan never acknowleged the boos and tried to talk over them.

But the boos were so loud and went on for so long that the rally’s moderator, Josie Camacho, the executive secretary-treasurer of the Alameda County Central Labor Council had to seize the microphone and urge the crowd to quiet down.

 “I grew up in a family where you treat people with respect and respect them when they’re talking,” Camacho said in an interview.

Quan’s speech came the same day she released a 63-page “budget outline with options" for Oakland this year. 

“To close that gap I believe all options must be on the table and everyone must contribute,” she wrote in her budget message.

Quan wrote “there will be cuts to programs and consolidation of programs” and said “employees will be asked to contribute” to closing the budget gap.

She also restated her support for an $80 perparcel tax “to reduce the necessary levels of cuts.”