Menino to unions: Play ball or face layoffs

(Report 3-4-09)

Mayor urges wage freeze - or else

by Richard Weir
DNN Reports!
Wednesday, Mar. 4, 2009

Mayor Thomas Menino drew a line in the sand yesterday with police, teachers and other city unions, giving them a March 15 deadline to accept a one-year wage freeze or else face deep cuts to their ranks.

“It would be wise for them to think about taking a wage freeze for a year,” Menino said, adding that it will help preserve some of the younger cops and teachers. “I always believed that unions are about jobs and saving jobs. And if you are not in favor of a wage freeze, you’re not in favor of saving jobs.”

With Boston looking at a $131 million shortfall and a budget due before the City Council on April 8, only five of the Hub’s 44 unions have agreed to give up their raises. Menino has said that if all unions agree to the wage concessions, the city could save an estimated $55 million.

But even if the mayor gets everything he wants, he said cuts are inevitable.

“Let me make this perfectly clear,” he told reporters at City Hall. “There will be some layoffs in city government, even with all the unions agreeing.

Pressed to be more precise, Menino put the number at “hundreds of layoffs.”

Cutting cops and teachers in an election year is politically dangerous, even for an entrenched incumbent. Menino has yet to announce whether he will seek an unprecedented fifth term.

One mayoral challenger, City Councilor Michael Flaherty, blasted Menino for his hardball stance.

“This administration is using scare tactics on the backs of dedicated city employees,” Flaherty told the Herald last night. “We need real specifics and an honest discussion about our deficit, our reserves and our stimulus money before we let people go.”

City Councilor Sam Yoon, who’s also running for mayor, slammed Menino for “threatening” unions through the media, saying, “That’s not the approach I would take.”

“This process has to be about face-to-face negotiations,” Yoon said.

Richard Stutman, head of the Boston Teachers Union, said he is not willing to consider wage freezes for his 7,000 members until he finds out how much money the city will get from the federal stimulus package and state aid - and until other revenue sources, like a higher meals tax, are explored.

“We believe it is premature to talk about layoffs,” Stutman said, adding he wants to see the city to force hospitals, colleges and other non-profits to pay “their fair share” for city services.