Twice Is The Charm

By vouchey in News on Feb 16, 2005 10:30PM

Wouldn't it be nice if you got a raise every year? How about twice a year? Most Cook County employees do. Guaranteed.

As part of union-negotiated contracts, union employees in Cook County, which amounts to 80% of the 26,000-strong force, receive twice-a-year cost-of-living increases to their pay. Union employees also get a nice health insurance package costing them only $208 a year.

All this adds up to big costs for the county, and because for the past month the County Board has been at an impasse on how to meet a $196 million shortfall for the next budget, everything is on the table. County number crunchers think $110 million of it is related to employee costs.

Chicagoist wants to know what happened to just cutting the number of employees. Last we heard was there were over a thousand vacant positions. What happened if we cut that? And what about the two percent across the board cut?

On another note, we need those talented union negotiators start working on stuff like NAFTA, the Kyoto Protocol and NHL player-owner negotiations. Twice-a-year raises are amazing!