As of Friday, 12/22/06, ED Burnette was walking around telling all the lawyers in the office that up to 210 attorneys should start looking for other work due to his proposal to cut the office budget by 17 percent. Other department heads told the County Board President that the 17 percent cuts were unrealistic and unreasonable. Well today, Burnette announced his new and revised plan calling his original plan unimaginative.
The new plan, as it affects this local, calls for the layoffs of possibly 50 attorneys, the imposition of two weeks of furlough and the creation of a four day work week for select employees. The new plan, needless to say, was arrived at with no input or consultation with the Local or AFSCME Council 31- the exclusive bargaining agent for all assistant public defenders in Cook County.
In June, when we ratified our current contract,with its modest wage increase, we did it after nearly two years of negotiatiion and hard work. We also negotiated it in good faith. We assume the County did too. The County could not have created the budget shortfall of 500 milliion dolllars over this summer. This was a financial position that was years in the making and the Union did its best to work with the County in negotiating a fair contract.
Now we will make sure the County lives up to its contractual obligations. To that end, Local leadership will be meeting with Council 31 directors to plan a response to Burnette’s latest proposal. We’ll make sure the budget isn’t being balanced on the backs of our members.
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