Da Mayor giveth and Da Mayor taketh away. On the heels of finally showing his hand on plans for the city's stimulus money, Mayor Daley is back to huffing and puffing about the budget shortfall. Apparently tired of waiting on the unions to get back to him on an agreement, Daley will take out his budget rage on 3,500 nonunion employees who will have to take up to 16 unpaid days by December via furlough days and an elimination of sick and vacation days. Da Mayor's hoping by taking his frustration out on nonunion employees, he'll spur the unions to action. A mayoral aide told the Sun-Times, "We can't control the unions. But this is a piece we can control. We're facing a serious budget deficit. The unions will have to help us, or there will be layoffs."

The Sun-Times maps out the battle between the labor unions and Da Mayor like so:

Last month, Daley threatened to lay off 1,600 city employees -- none sworn police officers or firefighters -- unless organized labor agrees to another round of givebacks to erase a $300 million shortfall.

They were asked to pick their poison from a $68.9 million menu that includes two furlough days a month for nine months ($24.9 million); comp time instead of cash for overtime ($17.8 million); making six remaining 2009 holidays unpaid ($9 million); a 5 percent pay cut ($12.9 million) and eliminating the July 1 increase in the prevailing wage ($12.9 million).

So far, none of the unions has agreed to cuts. Some are concerned about how city givebacks would impact private-sector negotiations. Others want a guarantee that, if concessions are granted, there won't be layoffs for the next two years.

Nonunion employees usually get 12 paid sick days and 12 paid holidays per year.

Filed in News and tagged budget crisis, city employees, furlough days, Mayor Daley, unions

Comments [rss]