Emanuel Defends Decision to Lay Off City Workers

By Soyoung Kwak in News on Jul 24, 2011 3:00PM

Last week, Mayor Emanuel made the decision to layoff more than 600 city employees due to the outstanding budget deficit. When labor organizations did not meet Emanuel's deadline to come up with possible solutions for the deficit problem, Emanuel made the difficult decision to cut back on the city's payroll. Although it was a decision that was met with much discontent, Emanuel defended his actions in a letter to city employees mid-week.

Emanuel's decision to lay off city employees most likely intensified any tension between the city workers and the new mayor. Even though some city employees are discontent with how the new mayor is running things out of city hall, Emanuel is forging ahead:

Although he [Mayor Emanuel] said "it troubles me greatly to do this," he reiterated his assertion that the mayor's job is "to protect the city's taxpayers, not the city's payroll."

Mayor Emanuel took everything one step further and expressed his action to cut city employees was not a decision made out of malice for city workers, but one of necessity to Chicago's taxpayers:

"The status quo just isn't working for our city or its residents," Emanuel said. "We must change the way we do business to build a better future for Chicago."

Even with the proposed layoffs, the race to solve the budget deficit continues. Are you on Team Rahmbo?