ROCKFORD — Mayor Larry Morrissey’s administration will lay off 30 employees this week in a sweeping reduction of labor across city departments,... The cuts are an attempt to reduce long-term, “structural” labor costs the city can no longer afford, officials said.

Gee,"STRUCTURAL",huh?....
like for instance....you keep hearing about those "unreasonable, union contract raises"...
what you DON'T hear is the non-union employees typically recieve TWO raises a year...first of the year they receive the 3.5%-4% increase( the same NEGOTIATED by the unions) BUT then in June/July they receive a "merit" raise....(they couldn't pull it off this year with the attention drawn to "fiscal responsibilities"....HOWEVER, do we hear that from 2007-2008 Patrick ("if everyone takes a 7%cut) Hayes saw his salary go from $119,600.00 to $131,476.80....
or Chester (we'll be fine with fewer cops) Epperson went from$117,416.00 to $$128,169.60....
and by the way...you also realize, don't you, that all these City Hall-types ALSO have pension plans the city pays into.... (and it's a PERCENTAGE of salary...higher the salary,higher the DOLLAR AMOUNT the City kicks in....)