His current labor relations with the city workers are strained because he has threatened layoffs.

Wall Street, too, is threatening layoffs.

The coal companies threatened layoffs and ultimately handed out hundreds of pink slips right before Christmas.

ALMOST every year, education officials here threaten massive layoffs and program cuts in the face of a budget crisis.

Labor leaders have said the administration has threatened layoffs as a tool to intimidate them into concessions.

When the mayor threatened layoffs early this year, she said, "I think there's a war on public schools and a war on poor people."

The mayor threatened layoffs - without using the word - in January at his speech on the state of the city.

The giant entertainment companies already complain about wafer-thin margins and are threatening layoffs.

Similarly last year, the Mayor threatened huge layoffs, then used buyouts to help reduce the size of the city work force by 15,000.

Within a week of taking office, he fired several hundred nonunion state employees and threatened layoffs.