Walter's Perspective: Don't Mess With Police Labor Negotiations
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Mr. Mayor Emanuel of Chicago, Your Honor, Mr. Mayor: Tell me, tell me, please, you're not serious.
You're kidding, what you're saying to the Chicago Police: that you may not sign or even negotiate a new contract because you've discovered a way to avoid it.
The mayor has found the police union missing a deadline for announcing its intentions to negotiate, an apparent mistake that allows him to deny the police a new contract, deny them a pay raise, take away their piddly uniform allowance and their stingy compensation for being always on call.
The mayor is not kidding. He says he may do it. And a confidant is quoted in the media saying the mayor is deciding whether to stick it in the ears of the rank-and-file.
Question is, why? The answer is: to spend less money so he can keep his election-campaign promise and brag about it.
Politics -- which I understand. But to nickle-and-dime the police at the expense of their morale and our safety? There's no way to understand that.
