More than a thousand workers crowded into a West Side union hall Wednesday afternoon to protest the city’s plans to lay off up to 800 employees.
Chanting “Save our jobs” and carrying signs that read “All I want is a paycheck for Christmas,” demonstrators called on Mayor Daley to postpone any layoffs until January, when union officials said the legislature plans to vote on an early retirement package that could offset the dismissals.
Already 380 workers from the Transportation and Water Departments have been given notice, a city representative said. Those layoffs are part of about 800 the city announced last month.
Many workers who were informed of their suspensions said they now have no way to provide for their families.
“I’m a family man with a wife and four kids at home,” said Jesse Vega, 43, an operating engineer for the Department of Streets and Sanitation. “I’m the only provider; I have a mortgage, a car payment, bills. Now I don’t know what I’m going to do.”
City officials said they had no choice but to go through with the layoffs after the legislature failed to pass an early retirement package during the veto session.
“We will continue to work with the unions and talk with the unions, and we will continue to ask for concessions,” said Lisa Schrader, a Budget Department spokeswoman.
Schrader said so many layoffs wouldn’t be necessary if union members agreed to less overtime pay for working on weekends and followed the lead of many city managers in taking unpaid time off.
But union officials said such concessions were unfair.
“We have a contract. We’re living up to our side of the contract,” said Henry Bayer, executive director of American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Council 31.
“If we went to the mayor and said ‘We decided to alter the contract and make things better for us,’ he’d say, ‘Get out of here,’ ” Bayer said.
“We’re helping the city,” Vega said. “The services I provide are important.”