Emanuel: "Furlough Days Have Not Worked"
By Chuck Sudo in News on Jun 28, 2011 6:30PM
Mayor Emanuel is meeting with Chicago Federation of Labor President Jorge Ramirez today, two days before an agreement between the City and labor unions requiring employees to take 24 unpaid furlough days and swap out comp time for cash overtime expires.
It's a major crossroads for Emanuel in the early stages of his mayoralty. If the city and labor can't reach some form of agreement, unionized employees get an automatic pay raise, adding to a budget deficit of over $700 million. $16 million in labor concessions were built into Richard Daley's final budget but have not been negotiated.
Emanuel stated during the mayoral campaign and after his election that he doesn't believe furloughs are an adequate solution to the budget crisis, nor is he in favor of extending them. “I did not create this inherent contradiction,” Emanuel said. “But I will solve it.”
Ramirez will also meet with 40th Ward Ald. John O'Connor, Emanuel's City Council floor leader and the chair of the new Workforce Development and Audit Committee formed to handle labor issues. If Ramirez, O'Connor and Emanuel can't reach an agreement, one option on the table is for the mayor to start sending out layoff notices. O'Connor downplayed that option as Emanuel taking a hard line against organized labor, but instead a harsh economic reality.
"In terms of the traditional, ‘We put you in office,’ that doesn’t exist. But, nobody is approaching this from a standpoint of, ‘You didn’t support me, so I can run roughshod over you,’ ” the alderman said.