New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg drew strong condemnation from the leaders of municipal unions yesterday for announcing that the city will proceed with 3,400 layoffs threatened as the alternative to a $600 million labor cost concession package. The unions had just last week submitted their own plan for realizing the $600 million in labor cost reductions the mayor's office has said the city needs to help close its massive and worsening deficit (see WIT for Feb. 28, 2003), but Mayor Bloomberg rejected the bulk of their proposals. In addition to the 3,400 layoffs of non-uniformed workers---some of which Mr. Bloomberg has said can still be avoided through immediate concessions---the mayor's office has also announced that it will proceed with the closing of eight firehouses and the reassignment of their personnel.
See JENNIFER STEINHAUER, The New York Times, April 7, 2003