Chicago Park District superintendent asks employees to take 16 furlough days

Furlough fever is spreading to the Chicago Park District.

One week after Mayor Daley ordered 3,600 non-union city employees to take 14 unpaid days off, Park District Superintendent Tim Mitchell upped the ante-by asking 1,700 park employees to take 16 furlough days.

Mitchell said the unpaid days are needed to erase a potential $14 million shortfall in his $400 million 2010 budget caused by a precipitous drop in corporate income tax revenues.

“What I’m telling the employees is, when you’re sitting at home watching the news and people get laid off at Caterpillar, it effects us. They can’t just sit at home and say, ‘Thank God it wasn’t me,’ ” Mitchell said.

“It’s all about saving peoples’ jobs. . . . If people lose their jobs now, what are they gonna get? Who’s hiring? No one’s hiring. Then, people lose their house. It's a terrible cycle. We're gonna do whatever we have to do” to avoid that.

Mitchell claimed union leaders have been “pretty receptive” to the demand, adding, “They’ve heard from their rank-and-file that it’s important to keep people employed and have health insurance for children and families.”

Christine Boardman, president of the Service Employees International Union Local 73, could not be reached for comment.

Earlier this week, Daley's furlough plan was stalled in a City Council committee by aldermen demanding an exemption for non-union employees earning less than $35,000-a-year. They also want a sliding scale above that, with higher wage earners taking more days off.

On Tuesday, the mayor flatly rejected that concept.

“The police want to be excluded. The Fire Department wants to be excluded. People under $35,000 or $40,000 want to be excluded. People with families want to be excluded. So, exclude ‘em all and it has no effect then,” said Daley, who vowed to lead by example in taking furlough days.

“How ‘bout people with four or five children? How ‘bout taking care of your parents? You’ll exclude everyone. If you do that, then you have no one participating. Then, you’re back in your financial problems.”

Union leaders are continuing to hold out for a two-year, no-layoff guarantee that Daley says he cannot give.

The clock is ticking. More than 1,100 layoff notices will be going out by June 1 — none to sworn police officers or firefighters — unless their unions agree to take 14 days off without pay by Dec. 31 and comp time instead of cash overtime.

The mayor is still holding out hope for an 11th-hour agreement.

“If everybody pitches in, you won’t lay anyone off,” he said. “Do you want to save anybody’s job or do you want to lay them off? When you lay someone off, that means they’re not coming back.”