Jun 15, 2009 8:05 pm US/Central
Daley, Labor Union Eye Deal To Avoid Layoffs
CHICAGO (Sun-Times Media Wire) ―
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Mayor Richard M. Daley
CBS
Chicago Federation of Labor President Dennis Gannon emerged from an hour-long meeting with Mayor Daley Monday predicting that a painful package of union concessions in the works would eliminate the need for 1,504 employee layoffs.
"We're working to the ends that there will be no layoffs. … We may take a tough hit here — and we probably are at the end of the day. … [But], we're under the impression that, if we do this package, they'll rescind the 1,500 layoffs … and do none," Gannon said.
"This is a time for organized labor to be principled, but [to] also have the ability to be flexible. … We need to do this as quickly as possible. The clock is ticking. Every day, the city is more and more in debt. … We want to do what we can do to save jobs, save families and save communities."
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.
Gannon refused to say which concessions the final package would include. Another bargaining session with the mayor's staff is scheduled for Wednesday, with a coalition of 40 labor leaders scheduled to meet Thursday.
But, Gannon made it clear that organized labor is no longer holding out for a two-year, no-layoff guarantee that Daley has insisted he cannot give with city revenues continuing to plummet. Instead, a guarantee could take other forms.
"There's got to be some assurances on pensions. There's got to be some assurances on health care. There's got to be some assurances [on] how long this deal is gonna take place. There's got to be assurances that there will be less privatization, and we'll be able to do this work in-house," Gannon said.
"There's got to be assurances that, ten years from now, these jobs that our members have are still gonna be there for 'em."
Even if those guarantees can be hammered out, Gannon acknowledged that the concessions would be a tough sell.
It 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.
"This is a tough ask. This is a very difficult plan. You're asking for folks to [swallow] an eight percent-to-ten percent reduction in their salaries. That's a very difficult thing to do," he said.
The meeting between Daley and organized labor was 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.
"It was higher than we expected," Gannon said.
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.
Streets and San would shrink 100 more garbage-collection crews from two-laborers-on-a-truck to one.
Treasured aldermanic menu programs would be delayed significantly.
(Source: Sun-Times Media Wire © Chicago Sun-Times 2009. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
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