Vegas Blues: Mayor May Fire Workers, Then Rehire at Fewer Hours

Here's an idea for weathering hard times in Sin City. If municipal employees won't work for less in Las Vegas, let's fire everyone and rehire them as part-timers.

That's what Mayor Oscar Goodman came up with on Wednesday as a way to deal with a $70 million budget gap and avoid the chopping block for 146 city workers. Vegas has been hard hit by the recession as penny-pinching consumers avoid the gaming tables.

"I'm trying to save jobs -- if it's a strong-arm tactic, so be it," Goodman said, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal. "If it's legal, I'm going to propose it to the council."

Goodman's big idea, which could shrink the workweek to 36 hours at a savings of 10 percent, did not go over well with the unions that represent many of the workers. "I think you're being a bully," said Chris Collins, executive director of the Police Protective Association, a union for city marshals. Collins insisted the union had made a significant offer to cut costs, but the mayor "quite simply slapped us in the face today, and said, 'no thanks, we'll lay you off.' "

But members of the largest union, the Las Vegas City Employees Association, are divided, union President Don King said, with some not wishing to concede anything but others willing to make a deal.

It appears that Mayor Goodman has already shown his hand.