When the city ordered its workforce to take-off unpaid days last year, Mayor Daley said he would never ask an employee to do something he would not, and the same goes for the top brass of his administration.
A new report given first to FOX Chicago shows, however, that nearly half of all aldermen took fewer furlough days than the city’s rank-and-file workers.
Whether it be a snow plow driver or a secretary, city workers were forced to take off as many as 15 unpaid days last year to help Chicago plug a budget hole of more than a half billion dollars, but a new report reveals 22 aldermen took fewer than those 15 days.
Aldermen Frank Olivo (pictured above and right), Brendan Reilly, and Joann Thompson took none.
“This is another case, where you see clout has it’s benefits,” said Dan Mihalopoulos, of the Chicago News Cooperative, who put together this story for Friday’s New York Times.
His examination of city records also revealed aldermen most commonly took their unpaid days on holidays and that they gave up a smaller percentage of pay compared to city employees.
“They get deducted 1/365 of their salary, while rank-and-file, average city workers are giving up 1/261 each time they give up a furlough day, and they are being treated as if they work a five day week,” Mihalopoulos said.
A city spokesman suggested in a statement that aldermen work year round and are paid accordingly.
“Elected officials do not have a set work week, so their salaries are based on a calendar year,” Peter Scales said.
Aldermen are not required to take furloughs, but Dennis Gannon, president of the Chicago Federation of Labor, says that as part of the labor deal signed last year with the city, aldermen assured they would take unpaid days.
“The working men and women as a city are making the sacrifice. We were told that everyone in the city, whether you’re an aldermen or the mayor, would feel the same pain.
It is insulting to me as the head of the labor movement here in the City of Chicago, to know and look at something that people aren’t living up to,” Gannon said.
City records show Mayor Daley took 16 unpaid days off last year.
Of the three aldermen who took no furlough days, Brendan Reilly was the only one who said he refused the city’s salary hike the last two years.
The others did not return calls when the report was put together.
If you want to know how many furlough days your alderman took last year, go to chicagonewscoop.org.
Read the original article from FOX Chicago News.