A big slap in the face to Daley who apparently is sick with the flu and got out of bed just to meet with the unions. Both sides are asking for things they aren't gonna get. It will be interesting to see how this plays out...with 1000 possible lay-offs coming as early as week's end.
Union leaders boycott City Hall meeting with sick Daley :: CHICAGO SUN-TIMES :: City Hall
The decision by organized labor to stiff Chicago's mayor would have been unheard of during the 21-year reign of Daley's father, former Mayor Richard J. Daley.
The elder Daley personally brokered many costly labor agreements in his City Hall office, some of which settled crippling strikes.
The younger Daley has had a tumultuous relationship with organized labor that saw only one major union endorse his 2007 re-election bid.
After the election, the mayor tried to smooth ruffled feathers by signing an unprecedented ten-year agreement that guaranteed labor peace through the 2016 Summer Olympic Games and locked in for 8,000 city tradesman the costly prevailing wage paid to their counterparts in private industry.
But, that was before the economy went south, sending city revenues into a nosedive.
Now, the gravy years are over for both the city and organized labor.
Chicago faces a threatened $300 million year-end shortfall. Union members who saw 420 of their colleagues laid off Dec. 31, even after agreeing to furlough days and other cost-saving concessions -- now face 1,100 more layoffs.
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