The following is an op-ed by Amisha Patel, executive director of the Grassroots Collaborative.

Mayor Emanuel has been touting the 3,600 new jobs he is bringing to Chicago, but what about the 625 jobs he is threatening to cut?

Emanuel has made it clear that fixing the 2012 schools and city budgets requires public workers to sacrifice. Unlike the promised jobs from corporations like GE and United, however, the public sector in Chicago employs Blacks and Latinos at very high rates.

The issue of race is the most under-reported element of the attack on public employees. Cloaked in calls for austerity (for poor and working-class families, anyway), this attack threatens to undermine Black economic advancement. And working families in Chicago – especially families of color – have reason to worry.

The public sector has long been a source of good, living-wage jobs due to high levels of unionization. In Chicago, public employment has been central to the development of the Black middle class.

Startling figures from a study by the Center for Labor Research and Education at the University of California, Berkeley show:

* The public sector employs 23.6 percent of Black workers in Chicago, compared to 10.8 percent of non-black workers.

* While 25 percent of Chicago's workers are Black, 42.2 percent of Chicago's public sector workers are Black.

* Median wages for African Americans in the public sector are about 39 percent higher than their overall levels. For example, Black men have a median wage of $22 in the public sector, compared to $14.56 in health care and social services and $12.55 in retail, the two next leading sectors employing Black workers.

That reality is crucial in understanding the impact of attacks on the public sector. The Midwest has been ground zero for such attacks, and Chicago is not exempt.

Mayor Emanuel is considering further privatization deals, potentially including schools, city services, parks, and transportation. His administration has gone after the bargaining rights of teachers and has appointed school leadership with pro-charter, pro-business priorities. Trash collectors, the majority of whom are workers of color, also face threats of privatization.

The experience of Black teachers over the past decade demonstrates how targeting public employees targets Black families. During Mayor Daley's aggressive push to close neighborhood schools and open charters under Renaissance 2010, the percentage of Black teachers in Chicago Public Schools dropped from 40.6 percent in 2000 to 29.6 percent in 2010 – a staggering loss of thousands of Black teachers -- according to a recent study by Northern Illinois University.

That's meant disrupted careers for dedicated educators like Veronica, a teacher for almost 20 years who became an assistant principal in 2008; she earned a Ph.D., hoping to be a role model for students. She lost her job in 2010.

She's had to abandon her apartment and sell her car. "I'm living day by day," she says, "but nothing has taken away my love for children." Now she's looking for contract work.

These policies mean one thing for workers: less economic security. Privatization means lower wages, less benefits, and reduced job security.

It can also mean fewer hours, adding to the growing problem of underemployment. Today a majority Chicago Park District workers – 42 percent of whom are Black – are working part time. Five years ago, these jobs were mostly full-time positions.

Sandra knows what that's like: at 53, she's worked part time at the park district since 1993. Today she takes care of two teenage grandchildren and a sick husband.

"My family and I struggle every day just to make ends meet," she says. "My biggest worry is being able to buy groceries for my family." It's tough paying the $950 rent on their Austin apartment, she says. "If they cut my hours any more, I don't know what I'll do."

Laying off teachers, reducing hours at the park district, cutting bus drivers and train operators, and privatizing streets and sanitation workers – this approach is not good for families, neighborhoods, or our city. To revitalize Chicago, we need racially equitable policies that support workers, not policies that make it harder for them to survive.

There are many good ways to take on the city’s financial constraints. Let’s demand that banks like Bank of America never again get an $8 billion-dollar federal tax refund: our tax dollars should be invested in our neighborhoods, not Wall Street. Let’s develop a use-it-or-lose it policy around TIFs so that our tax dollars don’t accumulate in slush funds for corporate Chicago, while our schools, parks, and city services get slashed. Let’s demand that banks cover the expenses of their foreclosed properties, and not rely on the cash-strapped city to clean up behind them -- and further subsidize their profits.

A vibrant public sector means tens of thousands of good jobs – jobs that are crucial to continued progress toward racial equality. Balancing the budget on the backs of working families, especially those already most marginalized, makes no good sense.

Amisha Patel is executive director of the Grassrooots Collaborative.