Jul 15, 2009 4:40 pm US/Central
Daley: Unions Failed; 431 City Workers Lose Jobs
CHICAGO (CBS) ―
-
-
Mayor Richard M. Daley
CBS
Saying two unions representing city workers have failed, Mayor Daley said Wednesday he was laying off more than 400 city workers at the end of the day.
"I don't want to lay anyone off. It could have been avoided," Daley said Wednesday. "I feel for the members and of course their families."
Two of 27 city unions held out on a compromise deal, refusing to accept the mayor's plan to cut costs.
"At the close of business today, the city will be forced, under labor agreements and labor law, to take the unfortunate step of laying off 431 employees represented by these two unions," Daley said.
A frustrated Mayor Daley made the announcement at a news conference Wednesday morning, doing his best to minimize the impact this could have on city services. The city points out the 141 laid off drivers are a small component of the 2,000 represented by Teamsters Local 726, and that the 290 AFSCME workers are a fraction of the union's 4,500 workers.
The two unions "have failed to reach an agreement with the city to take unpaid furlough days for the rest of the year to help us address our budget deficit and of course save our taxpayers money," he said.
The jobs lost include garbage truck drivers working for Streets and Sanitation, dental workers in the city's health clinics and civilians in the police department.
Daley also thanked the other unions that did agree to salary reductions to help save city jobs and keep government functioning.
"An agreement would have helped us protect our taxpayers, avoid layoffs and provide the services Chicagoans need during these very, very difficult economic times," Daley said.
Daley's cost-cutting plan called for workers to take 24 unpaid days off over the next two years. It also asked employees to accept comp time instead of cash for overtime, and all city holidays would be unpaid days off. All of that amounts to nearly a 10 percent pay cut.
The mayor said those concessions could have kept all union members employed.
"It's very painful because once they lost their job they lost their job, and when you go out on the job market there's no jobs out there," Daley said.
Furloughs and unpaid holidays are a tough pill to swallow, but many workers say they see it as the lesser of two evils, and they wish their union would just go along with the mayor's plan to save their jobs.
All the other unions agreed to the deal, but the Teamsters and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, or AFSCME, rejected it.
Union officials with AFSCME say the city would not listen to any compromises producing the same results.
"If the goal was to save money and to protect city services and jobs we presented an alternative that would save those same dollars," AFSCME's Anders Lindall said.
Teamster officials say the unwillingness of their drivers to give up overtime pay during winter snow removal was a big part of their decision not to give in. Still, even workers whose jobs have been saved this time know a tough economy cold mean more rough days ahead.
"Don't worry about nothing you don't have control over," city worker Scott Franks said.
Some workers were willing to accept lower pay to keep their positions, but union leaders say they wanted a guarantee from the mayor there would be no more layoffs in the future. And that's something Mayor Daley could not promise.
The mayor says his plan will save the city $24 million and, in the end, a total of 1,073 jobs.
A number of civilian positions in the police force are included in the layoffs, but the city says non-police personnel have agreed to take over those duties, so there would be no reduction in police officers on the street.
CBS 2's Vince Gerasole and Susan Carlson contributed to this report.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
Jewish Celebrities
Click to enlarge
Stumble It!
