Jun 18, 2009 5:08 am US/Central
City Union Leaders To Discuss Concessions
Members Of More Than 40 Unions To Meet
CHICAGO (CBS) ―
Members of 40 different unions will meet Thursday morning to discuss contract concessions that could save hundreds of city jobs.
The union members will meet behind closed doors at the Plumbers Hall, 1340 W. Washington Blvd. They work for the City of Chicago in all different departments, from Traffic Control to Detention.
The workers have all been warned that they need to come up with give-backs by July 15, or 1,500 jobs will be lost.
Sources said union leaders have been asked to consider a painful menu that includes: reduced work-weeks or schedules; furlough days; unpaid holidays; pay cuts; delayed prevailing wage increases; comp time for overtime; increased health care contributions and reduced sick-time accrual.
On Wednesday, talks between the unions and Mayor Daley's Chief of Staff ended without reaching a compromise.
The impasse comes less than two years after Daley agreed to an unprecedented, ten-year agreement with 8,000 members of the building trades that guaranteed labor peace through the 2016 Summer Olympic Games and locked in the prevailing wage paid to their counterparts in private industry.
The meetings between Daley and organized labor were originally scheduled for last week, but union leaders boycotted the meeting, in part, to get past union elections that secured the future of Lou Phillips, secretary-treasurer of Laborers Local 1001.
Daley then went ahead and sent out pink slips to 1,504 city employees, 400 more than anticipated.
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 San and Water Management.
The STNG Wire contributed to this report.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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