SPRINGFIELD (AP) – The union that represents many Springfield city employees is upset with the city because it has hired more than 50 new workers to the tune of nearly $2 million while at the same time ordering pay freezes for current employees.

“Employees see it as a slap in the face,” Robert DeMusis, a government workers’ union representative told The Republican of Springfield. “It’s a huge morale buster.”

Springfield ran a $21 million deficit last year.

An official of the Springfield Finance Control Board said the new employees were necessary to the city’s financial recovery, but union workers, who have had their salaries frozen since 2003, don’t see the rationale.

“On one hand they say they can’t pay us what they owe us,” David A. Wells, representative of a firefighter’s union said, “and on the other hand they are creating all these new positions.”

A new chief information officer was hired with a salary of more than $100,000 per year and a finance/budget director for $75,000.

Finance Director Philip Puccia said if the city had these staff members last year, Springfield might have avoided last year’s financial crisis. This year the city projects a $6.5 million deficit.

“The warning bells signaling the financial crisis would have sounded earlier, and louder,” he said.

-Associated Press