Results tagged “layoffs”

• Another day, another bandit, this time a pair of robberies downtown by The Citibank Bandit.
• A strange story out of Minnesota where an airplane overshot it's destination by 150 miles because the pilots were engaged in a heated discussion.
• An Arlington Heights man has been arrested for stabbing his grandmother in an attempt to kill her. Why? "For not showing him respect."

• The Reader's resident investigative badasses, Mick Dumke and Ben Joravsky, do it again, explaining to us the city's shadow budget.
• The CTA wheels and deals on parking lots and vending machines to garner a little cash to close their budget hole.
• The sale of the Old Main Post Office is back on again.

With bus services slashed under the CTA's new budget proposal, CTA bus drivers made up a large chunk of around 2,000 CTA employees who received layoff notices in the mail. The jobs will be laid out over the next two months as the transit authority prepares for a budget shortfall of nearly $300 million. [Sun-Times]

Sticking to his vow not to increase taxes to close next year's budget deficit, Mayor Daley announced on Monday a portion of his plan to save millions of dollars in city spending next year. That includes 24 furlough days for city non-union workers (that's five weeks off, the equivalent of a 10 percent pay cut), no cost of living increases and three reduced service days. “The economic recession that has plagued our nation for well over a year continues to affect most of Chicago working families,” Daley said at a City Hall news conference. “I understand that times are still tough for people and I don’t feel right asking them to pay for more city government right now,” he said.

As Governor Quinn struggles to find ways to balance the state budget without help from the General Assembly, an unlikely duo of litigants have filed separate suits to stop cuts in state spending and further tax hikes. AFSCME, the largest public employee union in the state filed suit in Johnson County earlier this week to prevent the 2,600 layoffs that Quinn has threatened to impose if an agreement can't be reached the cut the state's payroll obligations. And Blackhawks owner Rocky Wirtz has filed suit in Cook County Circuit Court, challenging the constitutionality of the state’s new video poker law as well as liquor, candy and a menu of other tax increases set to take effect September 1.

Chicago's Chief Financial Officer Gene Saffold is predicting that the city's budget hole will be worse next year. This is after the city burns through a new $320 million "rainy day fund" created from the parking meter lease. Saffold predicted a deficit of upwards of half a billion dollars next year, citing declining tax revenue and increased wages, compared against a projected budget of $6 billion. (Is this the first time the city has engaged in long-range financial planning? Publicly, at least?) While raising taxes is a last resort, according to Saffold, "nothing is ruled out at this point," Saffold told the Tribune. "The mayor has instructed us not to look at property taxes as we move forward in 2010."

As the city looks hard to close a budget hole of more than $300 million, Mayor Daley is announcing plans to furlough more than 2,000 non-union employees in the park district, the public schools, the city colleges, the Chicago Housing Authority, the Public Buildings Commission and the CTA. The unpaid days are expected to save the city $18 million. "We must continue to demand more from every employee and do more with less," Daley said at a press conference Tuesday. The bulk of the cuts will happen at the management level, affecting those earning around $90,000 a year or more. "Those savings demonstrate that we, starting at the top levels of governments in Chicago, understand the need to be part of the solution during these very, very difficult times," he said. Last month city hall laid off more than 400 city workers, after they refused to take overtime reductions and 15 unpiad furlough days.

As the deadline passed for two holdout unions to agree to concessions with the City of Chicago, the Mayor announced over 400 layoffs of city workers Wednesday. "I don't want to lay anyone off. It could have been avoided," Daley said Wednesday. "I feel for the members and of course their families." Referring to the truck drivers, library and public health and safety employees that were laid off, he said that Teamsters Local 726 and AFSCME Council 31 "have failed to reach an agreement with the city to take unpaid furlough days for the rest of the year to help us address our budget deficit and of course save our taxpayers money."

We mentioned it yesterday, but the numbers are in and they aren't pretty. In the first round of cuts meant to save money, the Chicago Public School System has cut 557 jobs. The cuts lower the CPS deficit by about $100 million, from $475 million to $375 million with even more cuts expected in the near future. According to the Sun-Times:

• R.I.P. acting legend (and Chicago native) Karl Malden.
• Bail was denied for Harold Turner, the blogger from New Jersey currently in jail for threatening several Chicago-area judges over their upholding of Chicago's handgun ban.
• Layoffs began today at the Chicago Public Schools.

There are conflicting reports this morning that the game of chicken between the unions and Mayor Daley may be at an end. The Sun-Times is reporting this morning that the two sides are in the process of finalizing a two-year deal that will cut costs but save 1,504 city workers who had otherwise been selected for layoffs. Of course, as the Sun-Times points out, a two-year deal would conveniently carry through the aldermanic and mayoral elections of 2011. Chicago Federation of Labor President Dennis Gannon wouldn't discuss details, but did say, "There's a deal in the works."

At the end of this year, Chicago could be short 800 cops compared to last year the police union told the Sun-Times. The shortage is attributed to vacancies, attrition rates, and Mayor Daley’s 2009 budget which has significantly slowed down hiring. Chicago Police Supt. Jody Weis told the Sun-Times last week that the CPD hopes to use federal grant money to hire 150 new officers this year. In the short term Weis will manage the officer shortage by shifting officers from desk jobs, or pay officers overtime with federal grants to cover the streets this summer.

In an effort to balance next year’s budget, the Art Institute of Chicago is laying off 22 staff members, accounting for 3% of their workforce. The cuts are being made across the board, and take effect immediately; employees were notified on Thursday.

As 1,500 city workers await threatened pink slips, Mayor Daley (before he heads to Switzerland) met with union leaders to try to hash out some sort of compromise. Chicago Federation of Labor President Dennis Gannon said, "We may take a tough hit, and we probably are at the end of the day, but we want to get our arms around this as best we possibly can to make sure we minimize the amount of layoffs." [Trib's Clout Street]

Even more pink slips than first expected will be sent to city workers today: instead of the expected 1,100 employees getting laid off, an extra 400 will receive the bad news as well. According to the Sun-Times, the 1,504 layoffs will go into effect July 15 unless there's a last-second deal with the unions. Here's the rundown of how each department will be affected (uniformed police officers and fire fighters are exempt from this round).

• The WHO has declared the swine flu outbreak a global pandemic, the first in 41 years. One company who is benefiting is local company Baxter.
• The Supreme Court has turned down Conrad Black's request for release on bail pending his appeal.
• Mayor Daley surfaced long enough today to confirm layoff notices to city workers will be going out tomorrow.

Known for their stark religious beliefs and refusal to use certain modern conveniences such as electricity, automobiles and insurance, the Amish population in Goshen, Ind. -- a town located 120 miles east of Chicago with population just under 32,000 -- might be making a few exceptions to get by during the recession.

Mars Inc. is closing five of its six Illinois Ethel's Chocolate locations by the end of the month. Fans of Mars's haute chocolate salon will have to travel to Skokie to get their fix. [Crain's]

Among the 2,200 layoffs Caterpillar, Inc. announced yesterday, a total of 1,526 will come from Illinois, including 815 from its hydraulic excavators plant located in Aurora. Of those, 665 will be production workers and 150 will be management and support positions. The layoffs will begin in June and will continue through the end of the year. A memo sent to workers calls the layoffs "indefinite" but the company expressed hope that some of the positions cut may be recalled in the future. [Tribune]

The job cuts keep getting deeper. The University of Chicago Medical Center announced this morning that they will be eliminating 450 jobs (with hundreds more being lost through attrition) as well as cutting $100 million from its annual budget. On Friday, Dr. Skip Garcia, chairman of the University of Chicago Department of Medicine since May 2005, resigned his position but plans to stay on as a faculty member.

• Police continue to investigate the death of a three-month old baby who was found in a crowded, dirty apartment on the Northwest Side.
• Yesterday was a dark day for businesses nationwide with tens of thousands of jobs cut. Among them, 20,000 by Illinois-based Caterpillar.
• The ACLU has filed suit against the Illinois Department of Vital Records for refusing to issue new birth certificates to transgenders who have their sex change operation performed overseas.

• Motorola, based out of Schaumburg, announced today it would be cutting 4,000 jobs. This is in addition to the 3,000 cut during the fourth quarter of 2008. Damn.
• An Illinois House committee that oversees DFCS may consider tougher laws about aggressive dogs living in foster homes following Sunday's mauling death of foster child Alex Angulo.
• Tom Tuduj, accused of stabbing his boss to death in 2006, testified at his own trial and claimed his medication was to blame.

AT&T has announced plans to cut four percent of its work force, some 12,000 jobs, and while the company is only saying the cuts will come from offices nation-wide, many who work for AT&T in Chicago are holding their breath. Most of the cuts will come from the company's landline division; the company's voice line services decreased by 11 percent last quarter while wireless services increased. Severance packages will cost the company around $600 million and the layoffs will begin this month and continue into 2009.

The University of Illinois Medical Center at Chicago announced they'll be cutting 200 jobs. The move is an attempt to save money to the tune of $14 million. Additional service cuts will put total savings at $25 million. Said spokeswoman Sherri McGinnis Gonzalez, "Our goal is to take prudent steps and thoughtfully diligent action now to avoid tough decisions later."

The financial clusterfuck has reached a level we thought it never would: affecting cola sales. In response, PepsiCo is preparing to cut around 120 jobs from its Barrington and Chicago offices. The company plans to cut 3,300 jobs nation-wide. As people eat out less and make less gas station stops (since they're driving less), soda sales have fizzled, according to Pepsi Chief Financial Officer Richard Goodman, who said, "The beverage business was clearly the soft spot. The whole category has continued to be soft this year."

As we told you earlier this week, Mayor Daley's 2009 budget calls for 300 layoffs in the Streets and Sanitation Department -- a measure proposed to help us deal with our little $420 million shortfall problem. One possible consequence of the cuts, it's being reported, is longer periods between garbage pick-ups. Things could be getting smelly out there pretty soon!

That Noelle Brennan. It's like she thought of everything!

Hard times abound for many print media publication and The Chicago Tribune is the latest victim. Following up on Tribune Co. chairman and CEO Sam Zell's warning from earlier this year of more layoffs, the Trib announced today it plans to eliminate 80 positions in its newsroom. It's the fourth round of layoffs since 2005. At that time, the newsroom had 670 positions; this round of cuts will leave it around 500. Of the 80 positions being cut, roughly a dozen remain unfilled so the number of actual newsroom workers losing their jobs will be in the mid-50s. More jobs will be cut during this current round, but those are unknown at this time. In addition to the job cuts, the Trib will also reduce the pages it produces by 13 to 14 percent. A similar reduction in jobs and pages was announced last week at The Los Angeles Times, another Tribune Co. paper.