Jul 1, 2009 4:29 pm US/Central
All But 3 City Unions Back Deal To Stop Layoffs
Mayor Daley, Union Leader Implore Holdouts To Agree To Deal Before Layoffs Start
CHICAGO (CBS) ―
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The city is threatening to lay off 1,500 workers unless unions agree to concessions. Three unions were still holding out as of Wednesday.
CBS
How much would you be willing to give up to save your coworkers' jobs? That's the dilemma facing thousands of Chicago union members. Here's what's on the line for those workers: 8 percent pay cuts and 15 unpaid days off; all to save more than 1,500 jobs. CBS 2's Mike Parker reports that the unions are fighting amongst themselves.
Unions representing thousands of Chicago municipal workers are battling over the best way to save the jobs of 1,504 employees who've been told they'll be out of work in two weeks. Mayor Richard M. Daley seems caught in the middle.
"Everybody's in the same boat and the private sector is in the same boat, and we're trying to basically keep people working," Daley said.
Daley says the only way to balance the budget is for the unions to knuckle under and agree to his plan. It reportedly calls for 8 percent wage cuts and two weeks of furlough days each year for two years. If they don't, Daley says he'll make good on his promise to fire those employees.
Some union leaders are saying 'no way.' Others appeared with the mayor Wednesday to say their members are willing to bite the bullet to save their friends' jobs. All but three unions that represent city workers have agreed to a deal that would avert mass layoffs, and the workers who have agreed to the deal are imploring those who haven't to fall in line.
"We're in economic times that we've never been in before," said Dennis Gannon of Chicago Federation of Labor. "We understand families and communities. We understand what a recession does."
"We have up to 30 percent unemployment in some of our locals," said Building & Construction Trades Council President Tom Villanova. "There's nowhere to go for these 1,504 people if they were to get laid off."
"There's got to be a little compassion," Gannon said.
As CBS 2's Dorothy Tucker reports, 90 percent of the workers struck a deal with Mayor Daley on Wednesday.
If approved, it would end an impasse that has now lasted more than a month.
But three unions are refusing to agree to the deal, and there are only two weeks left before threatened layoffs take effect.
One of the unions holding out is the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, or AFSCME, which says the pay cuts are too deep.
"AFSCME members are among the lowest-paid city workers, many live from paycheck to paycheck, and they simply cannot afford a pay cut of that magnitude," AFSCME Executive Director Henry Bayer said in a news release.
AFSCME also criticized the plan to lay off city workers. Bayer said hundreds of workers represented by AFSCME would be among those affected.
"AFSCME believes these layoffs are wrong-headed and wrong-hearted. They will damage core city services, cutting libraries and health clinics, taking police off the streets to perform clerical duties, and diminish other important functions. They will increase the ranks of the unemployed in a city already hard-hit by the economic downturn. And they will cause grave harm to those employees who will lose their jobs," Bayer said in the statement.
The union's chief says he's given the mayor an alternative to save the same amount of money, but declines to share it with CBS 2.
"If there are layoffs, if someone wants to look someplace to lay the blame, then look on the fifth floor of City Hall, because it'll be Mayor Richard Daley who'll be responsible for these layoffs," Bayer said.
The City of Chicago has already sent out layoff notices to more than 1,500 city employees. The notices, personally signed by Mayor Daley, said the workers would be out of their jobs effective July 15 if the unions did not agree to concessions.
With sworn police officers and firefighters once again exempted from the July 15 cuts, the axe would fall most heavily on two departments — Streets and Sanitation and Water Management.
Union leaders who agreed to the deal joined with the mayor in an attempt to persuade the three holdout unions to come on board.
"These layoffs can still be avoided if the unions agree with us on a plan to reduce costs in the next two weeks," Daley said. "We have two more weeks until July 15."
Mayor Daley also pointed out that non-union members also made concessions.
What if the mayor gets his way and the economy gets even worse in the years ahead? Will there be more concessions demanded from the unions? More layoffs threatened?
Daley won't speculate, except to say, "You know, it's no one's fault."
CBS 2's Mike Parker and Dorothy Tucker contributed to this report.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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