Brothers and Sisters:
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\nThis week County Board President\u00a0P unveiled her very disappointing FY 12 budget plan which includes the loss of more than $50 million in revenue as the result of her decision to remove \u00bc of one percent of the sales tax.
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\nThe dollars lost from that decision alone would have saved nearly all of the County jobs now scheduled for elimination under the President\u2019s proposed budget.\u00a0\u00a0
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\nInstead of assuming responsibility for her actions, President P\u00a0is attempting to shift the blame for her proposed layoffs onto frontline County employees\u2014demanding that union members take six unpaid holidays and two unpaid furlough days to help close the budget gap.\u00a0 She presented this proposal as an ultimatum just prior to unveiling her budget\u2014giving the unions only a few days to respond.
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\nUnder her proposal, County employees would not be paid for holidays–Christmas, New Years, Memorial Day, Fourth of July, Labor Day, and Thanksgiving–not only this year, but for years to come.
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\nCook County AFSCME local presidents came together to speak with one voice\u2014declaring that Presidemt P\u2019s demand for unpaid days was not a serious proposal nor a serious effort to address the County\u2019s budget problem.
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\nIn presenting her budget plan, President P\u00a0again sought to pressure employees into taking unpaid days as she announced the layoff of over 1,000 County employees.
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\nThe County estimates that approximately 250 of those targeted for layoff would be employees in AFSCME bargaining units.\u00a0 These planned layoffs will\u00a0be in the following offices:\u00a0 Assessor, Chief Judge, State\u2019s Attorney, Public Defender, and Health System.\u00a0 In\u00a0our\u00a0office,\u00a0 57\u00a0total members of our local,
\nand sister locals that represent support staff and our investigators have received layoff notices.\u00a0<\/p>\n
AFSCME is fighting against the proposed budget.\u00a0 The layoffs would have a devastating impact on employees and their families\u2014while diminishing the quality of\u00a0representation\u00a0that we provide our clients, in the\u00a0end, costing the County more money in the long run. Brothers and Sisters: \u00a0 This week County Board President\u00a0P unveiled her very disappointing FY 12 budget plan which includes the loss of more than $50 million in revenue as the result of her decision to remove \u00bc of one percent of the sales tax. \u00a0 The dollars lost from that decision alone would have saved […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1379","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/local3315.org\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1379","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/local3315.org\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/local3315.org\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/local3315.org\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/local3315.org\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1379"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/local3315.org\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1379\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/local3315.org\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1379"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/local3315.org\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1379"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/local3315.org\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1379"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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\nUnfortunately, the time for public input and Board review of the budget plan is very brief.\u00a0 Despite\u00a0President P’s\u00a0claims of openness and transparency, she is attempting to push through a vote on the budget by November 18\u2014just three weeks after its introduction.
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\nSo there is no time to waste.
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\nPublic hearings on the budget are scheduled to begin next week.\u00a0 The times, dates and locations can be found by clicking here<\/a>.\u00a0
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\nYou should attend as many of the public hearings as possible.\u00a0 Council 31 and your executive board will be there to present testimony about the harmful consequences of making these cuts.\u00a0
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\nIt\u2019s also critical that you contact your County Commissioner right away to urge him or her to work to amend the budget in order to maintain services and prevent layoffs.\u00a0 Call today to tell your Commissioner:\u00a0 Don\u2019t cut services or lay off employees!\u00a0\u00a0
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\nCounty Board members and their contact information has been\u00a0sent as an attachment\u00a0to all 316 members on our email burst list.\u00a0 It’s easy for members to get on that list, just send and email\u00a0with your name and\u00a0job site to board@cookcountypd.org<\/a>\u00a0
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\nIt\u2019s essential that we stand up against President P\u2019s attempt to balance the budget on our backs.\u00a0 We have to send a strong message that these cuts will hurt vital services, harm those who lose their jobs, and damage the fabric of our communities.
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\nPlease note that if you have signed up on the Secretary to the County Board’s Website to speak at the public hearings, make sure to bring 30 copies of your statement and the time limit is 3 minutes.
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\nK. S. Galhotra
\nPresident
\nAFSCME Local 3315
\nThe Cook County Public Defenders Association<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"