More Bad News for the City Budget

By Kevin Robinson in News on Aug 14, 2008 4:15PM

Mayor Daley’s chief-of-staff Lori Healey, Chief Financial Officer Paul Volpe and Intergovernmental Affairs Director John Dunn met Tuesday with 40 union leaders that represent city workers. Top of the agenda? The more than $400 million projected hole in next year's city budget. "We’re looking at workforce reductions. We’re looking at a significant, almost restructuring of the way we deliver and get services and the number of agencies we have," the Sun-Times says Healy was overheard saying. "This is not an exercise where we’ve said to department heads, ‘Cut a bunch of people and give us their names.’ We’re gonna…find areas and functions that don’t make sense...It’s not focussed at unions. Managers, commissioners, deputy commissioners," will be included.

Chicago Federation of Labor President Dennis Gannon didn't seem too happy about those scenarios. Although he suggested that union members in the city would match furlough days and accept canceled pay raises, "we represent members and members are gonna get hurt...If there’s employees cuts, that means there’s service cuts. It’s not gonna be pretty…As usual, organized labor will do the best they possibly can to save as many jobs as they possibly can." But Gannon also pointed out that this news is a surprise, coming after the city negotiated a ten-year contract with city unions in anticipation of winning the 2016 Olympic bid for Chicago. "We just finished negotiating a ten-year contract with them. That’s where you should bring this up. I mean — this shortfall didn’t just happen overnight," Gannon told the Sun-Times.

While the Mayor's minions were bargaining pay cuts and work-rule changes, the Daley administration was busy issuing retroactive pay raises for politically appointed Streets and Sanitation ward superintendents. "They are asking our people for concessions, yet giving their bosses a raise," said Gannon. "It leaves a bad taste in your mouth. It's just not rational." Michael Picardi, the mayor's Streets and Sanitation commissioner, wrote in an Aug. 7 memo, "Retro checks will be issued in the near future." Those raises will be retroactive to January 1, 2008.

Photo by Million Dolla Bill