It appears Mayor Rahm Emanuel is losing patience with labor leaders as he looks for $30 million in cuts.
Labor sources say the wait isn’t all their fault, and they believe layoff notices will be sent to 625 city workers on Friday.
Emanuel's press secretary, Tarrah Cooper, said she couldn't "confirm or deny" whether layoff notices were planned.
"We're very disappointed and upset with the way [the city has] handled this," said Nick Kaleba, the Director of Communications for the Chicago Federation of Labor.
Labor leaders just this week learned with whom to negotiate inside the Emanuel administration (that person has not been publicly named). They say the city hasn't given them key information on what exactly they want in concessions.
Sources say the city is looking for hourly pay cuts, reduction of holiday and sick time, as well as opening up apprentice opportunities to less expensive workers.
The city and the unions were expected to sit down soon, and labor sources said they'd turned to a consultant to help form a list of ideas to cut costs ahead of those meetings.
