Daley gives holdout unions new deadline

Daley gives holdout unions new deadline
Copyright © 2009, Chicago Tribune
http://www.chicagobreakingnews.com/2009/07/midnight-deadline-passes-for-city-union-givebacks.html
July 15, 2009 11:34 AM

Midnight was the deadline, but Mayor Richard Daley didn't pull the trigger this morning on layoffs for more than 400 city workers represented by unions that won't agree to his demands for cost-cutting.

At a morning news conference Daley repeated his Tuesday threat to cut 141 Teamsters members and 290 members of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, or AFSCME. But this time he extended the deadline to 5 p.m. today. Daley acknowledged an agreement could come before then to save the jobs.

Andrea Gibson, a deputy budget director, told reporters that because AFSCME had reached out to the city, it would be "irresponsible" for the city not to extend the deadline until the end of the day.

"We did say midnight yesterday, but they reached out to us this morning and it would be irresponsible for us to disregard that, in light of the jobs and the families that would be affected," said Gibson, who appeared at City Hall with the mayor.

Just before the mayor's news conference, AFSCME Council 31 sent out a news release that said in part: "The mayor's decision will cause great hardship for these workers and their families, and will further reduce city services for residents who rely on them, especially in the police department, the libraries and the health clinics."

Daley said that delivering city services with more than 400 less employees would require "better management."

"You know, you have to do more with less," said the mayor, who brought up several companies in the private sector who announced layoffs.

Jack Hurley, recording secretary of Teamsters Local 726, said he understood the deadline as being the end of today, despite the mayor's declaration on Tuesday. But he said the union is not negotiating with the city.

"There's really no new negotiations, unless the city comes back to us," Hurley said. "And [the city] can't really come back to us with anything different."

Workers who would be laid off have already received notice because of labor laws and contracts. Hurley said one of the major sticking points in negotiations is drivers taking compensatory time instead of cash for overtime.

"There's drivers that would lose $30,000," Hurley said. "We're not being greedy, it's just a fact of life."

On Tuesday, Daley held a news conference with more than 20 union leaders where he announced the late Tuesday deadline for the two holdout unions and praised the 25 labor groups that agreed to give backs, which include a combination of unpaid holidays, furlough days, comp time instead of overtime and a 38-hour work week for some employees.

Daley originally threatened to cut 1,504 workers. The administration has said the city faces a more than $300 million budget shortfall and hopes to save $24 million through layoffs and concessions.

The 141 Teamsters workers drive trucks in eight city departments, primarily Streets and Sanitation, Water Management and Aviation. Of the 290 ASFCME workers on the chopping block, 120 work in city libraries stocking books, and the rest work in lower-level administrative jobs across 28 departments, according to City Hall.

In response to questions about service cuts, Gibson today said those being laid off were a small number compared to the total number of employees employed by the city from each union.

"We're going to cover the work they do," she said. "We have specific plans in place with each department to make sure we don't have much of a service impact at all."


dpblake@tribune.com