Emanuel's decision to lay off city employees most likely intensified any tension between the city workers and the new mayor. more ›

• A man was shot and killed by police today after he tried to run over a police officer who had stopped the man's car for questioning.
• An 11-year-old Will County boy died after he was electrocuted while washing a horse.
• There's a governor's debate tonight, but the two main candidates won't be there.

In a swift and startling move, Teamsters Local 726, which represented truck drivers in the city's Departments of Streets and Sanitation, Transportation, Water Management and Aviation, was taken over by the international union yesterday. Local 726 was one of two unions that held out against the mayor's cost-cutting efforts in this year's budget battle, resulting in nearly 150 city truck drivers being laid off. At the time, the local refused to give up overtime and take furlough days. Tom Clair, then secretary-treasurer of Teamsters Local 726, had said that "during the winter program, our people work snow. They also work out on the runways at O'Hare. They felt it was too big a hit on the comp time. That accounts for $15,000-to-$30,000 more a year. They weren't willing to give that up." more ›

As Mayor Daley announced layoffs after playing hardball with a pair of unions, the Sun-Times takes on a batch of 911 workers who have each earned over $10,000 of overtime pay this year. The city's Office of Emergency Management and Communications, however, insists these workers are putting in extra hours thanks to more calls and several position vacancies, making the overtime necessary. Spokeswoman Jennifer Martinez said, "Every ring could mean the difference between life and death." more ›

The City Council today voted 42-6 to approve 15 unpaid furlough days for non-union city workers in an effort to cut costs for the city as it continues to deal with massive budget issues. Ald. Edward Burke (14th) insisted it was to keep from losing jobs, saying, "I don't think we have much choice." Ald. Helen Shiller (46th) said, "We have to show [the unions] we're serious." According to Clout Street, the six votes against the plan were from Ald. Pat Dowell (3rd), Robert Fioretti (2nd), Toni Preckwinkle (4th), Leslie Hairston (5th), Sandi Jackson (7th) and Joe Moore (49th). No word on who the two missing votes were from. more ›

Even more pink slips than first expected will be sent to city workers today: instead of the expected 1,100 employees getting laid off, an extra 400 will receive the bad news as well. According to the Sun-Times, the 1,504 layoffs will go into effect July 15 unless there's a last-second deal with the unions. Here's the rundown of how each department will be affected (uniformed police officers and fire fighters are exempt from this round). more ›

Mayor Daley addressed the media Wednesday evening in his typically candid fashion, taking on lazy city workers, "shovel-ready" projects for the pending federal economic recovery bill and criticism from Fith Congressional District candidates over his plan to privatize Midway Airport. Defending his sell of off city assets, including Midway, Daley said city workers are "clock watchers" who don't care about customers. "They're not customer-related. They're gonna leave at 5 o'clock. They're gonna leave at 4:30 or 4:00. I'm sorry. We're on a time clock. They walk out. But, in the private sector, when you have a customer, you're gonna stay there making sure they're happy and satisfied," Daley told the press. "We can't compete with the private sector. The private sector has a complete idea of who your customers are. Government doesn't have customers. They only have citizens." more ›

There's news out of City Hall today and for the first time in weeks it doesn't involve Mayor Daley's Prophesies of Doom™. Instead, it seems the Mayor and union leaders have worked out an agreement that could greatly reduce the 929 planned layoffs in the city's 2009 budget. In exchange for offering eligible union members cash incentives for voluntary retirement, union leaders have agreed to reduce the cost of overtime for city workers.

"We have 433 eligible people in the Laborers pension fund. We're hoping around 60 will take advantage of it," Lou Phillips, business manager of Laborers Local 1001, said Monday. more ›

Mayor Daley's proposed 2009 budget got no love from organized labor this weekend. But Daley's not taking any of their guff by telling them to go along with the plan or be prepared to find a pink slip. On Friday, union leaders and city officials met to discuss the 929 city employees who would be laid off if Daley's budget were okayed by the city council (we wonder what the odds are on that bet). more ›

In order to save some money, Mayor Daley announced today that City Hall would be closed on the Friday after Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve, and New Years Eve both this year and next. The six day shut-down will save the city approximately $19.8 million total. Sayeth the Sun-Times, "The only city employees scheduled to work those traditionally high-absenteeism days will be police officers, firefighters, 911 center employees and a skeletal crew in departments like Streets and Sanitation, Water, Aviation and Family Services." The stinker? The rest of the city workers will have to take the days off unpaid in order for the whole thing to work. We guess a few unpaid days beats getting laid off. In the event of a snowstorm, the city workers would be called back in. more ›