Detroit has a $265 million budget and $13.2 billion in long-term structural debt.

Mayor Dave Bing has presented a budget to the City Council that would cut more than 2,500 of Detroit’s 10,800 jobs and shave $250 million in annual expenses. Bing’s office on Wednesday declined comment about the possibility of a strike by city workers.

While state law forbids public employees from striking, Detroit’s city unions have a strong history of using organized walk outs to get their way or better contracts.

Last November, bus drivers held a half-day work stoppage over safety concerns. Drivers also walked off the job in May 2007 over similar safety issues. They were promised more police protection both times and returned to the road.

Garbage collection was stopped and bus service shut down for 19 days during a 1986 strike by 7,000 workers over pay and other issues. Trash accumulated at a daily rate of about 4,000 tons during the heat of July and early August. In 1978, unions representing 1,700 workers held a three-day strike that stranded tens of thousands of bus riders and left garbage piled on city streets and alleys.

Short strikes in 1971 and again in 1975 also left trash piled high.

“We have not taken a strike vote at this point,” said Ed McNeil, a spokesman for American Federation of State, County & Municipal Employees Council 25. “It’s at that point. You can’t keep pushing people in the corner and expect they are going to lay in that corner and not fight.

Under the consent agreement, the city must seek a uniform contract with public worker unions. Worker concessions could also include potential job outsourcing, no automatic reinstatement of higher pay levels and health care and pension givebacks.

“People in other locals are buzzing around that striking has been mentioned, but there is no exact plan,” said Larry Nunnery, who works as a lifeguard and lifeguard instructor in the city’s Parks and Recreation Department. “There was a meeting a couple of weeks ago where people are ready to shut the city down.”

Deep concession requests could lead to a strike, said John Riehl, president of American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 207.

“If they think they are going to tear up our union rights, the sky’s the limit,” Riehl said. “We may end up in a strike if this goes the way they are pushing on it.”

Though possible, a strike by disgruntled workers likely is not the best option, organized labor experts said.

“At some point you have to know when to hold them and know when to fold them,” Detroit labor law attorney John Entenman said. “Yeah, they can strike and yeah, strikes are illegal and some court — after political wrangling — may issue an injunction.”

A sustained strike that further undermines already shaky operations like bus transportation and ambulance service could set back a city image recovering from separate public corruption scandals tied to a former mayor and council woman.

Public opinion also would be against the unions, said Arthur Schwartz, a labor relations and economics professor.

“Right now, their leverage is not particularly good,” Schwartz said, adding that the “most pragmatic thing is to try and regroup and wait for the city to try and get back on its feet.”

Not all workers are fully behind the strike talk.

“It is illegal for public employees to strike and we’re not taking that position,” said Yolanda Langston, Detroit chapter president of the Service Employees International Union. “It would be good to stand in solidarity, and it would also send a strong message if everybody was in unison.”

Still, McNeil said all options remain on the table and unions may instead seek recalls of Detroit and state elected officials who supported the consent agreement.

Meanwhile, workers like 46-year-old Ernestine Smith are “scared.”

“I don’t know if I will have a job tomorrow,” said Smith, a 10-year general services park maintenance employee, adding that she’s already living paycheck to paycheck on a $13.61 per hour salary and doesn’t know how she’ll handle increased health care costs.

In the end, going on strike may be “all that’s left to do,” Smith said.

“They are bullying us. Do this or you are not going to have a job.”

“Make no mistake about it, the work begins today,” Council President Pro Tem Gary Brown told reporters after casting one of five votes in favor of the agreement. “Now we have oversight with real teeth that will insure that city services get reshaped.”

The question of who should lead the way in fixing Detroit’s finances has divided the city for months, with some saying help from the state and Snyder is the only answer to Detroit’s $200 million budget deficit and $13.2 billion in structural debt. Others, including many of the city’s unionized workers, fear Detroit is welcoming in a powerful partner that will take away self-rule and force strict wage and benefits concessions on city employees.

“This city is on track to run out of cash,” said Councilwoman Saunteel Jenkins, who also voted for the deal. “Of course, the easy thing to do was vote ‘no.’ I felt it was in the best interest of the city and the more than 700,000 people who live here for us to work with the state.”

Four on the council voted against the deadline-beating deal that avoids the embarrassment of Michigan’s governor appointing a financial overseer for City Hall.

Snyder had given the city until Thursday to approve the agreement or risk the appointment of an emergency manager to take over. It was not clear when Snyder and Bing will sign the document. Bing was readmitted to a hospital Wednesday as a precaution because of discomfort following surgery to correct a perforated colon.

Although many of the details are unclear, the agreement lets Bing and the council keep authority over the city’s finances and budget. However, they would be required to renegotiate recently ratified union concessions and share decision-making with a newly hired project manager and chief financial officer. A nine-member board would monitor the city’s fiscal restructuring.

“The Detroit City Council’s vote … represents a pivotal moment in Detroit’s history,” Deputy Mayor Kirk Lewis said in a statement. “It is time now to begin the monumental task of stabilizing Detroit’s financial operations.

“The mayor and his administration worked with the City Council and the state to develop a consent agreement that we believe puts us on track to restructure our city financially and re-establish an infrastructure to make sure Detroit never faces these financial conditions again.”

Snyder released a statement crediting the council for acting “responsibly to put Detroit on the path to financial stability.”

“We all want Detroit to succeed,” Snyder said. “… While the council’s action is a positive step, there’s no doubt that much work remains. The magnitude of the city’s financial challenges means that many difficult decisions lie ahead.”

The Detroit case is the highest-profile yet involving a controversial year-old Michigan law that gives the state more power to intervene in financially troubled cities and school systems. Emergency managers have the power to toss out union contracts and strip locally elected leaders of authority. A petition drive aimed at overturning the Michigan law is trying to qualify for the November ballot.

The former manufacturing giant has been floundering financially for years, partly due to the ups and downs of Detroit’s automakers and a declining tax base as people and businesses left the city. Past leaders also failed to curtail spending and cut jobs to keep pace with losses in revenue.

When Bing took office in 2009, the city’s deficit topped $300 million. He has since cut about 2,000 jobs through layoffs and by not filling open positions.

The deal reached Wednesday compels Detroit to meet deadlines in putting together city budgets and to accurately update revenue predictions. City departments are expected to be slimmed down or consolidated if savings can be made. Work currently performed by some unionized employees could be outsourced to save money.

Missed deadlines and failure to comply with those and other terms of the agreement could be constituted as a breach of the deal and lead to the state’s withholding of revenue sharing and preventing the city from entering the capital markets to sell bonds. At worst, the state Treasurer’s office also could place the city in receivership.

The nine-member financial advisory board will monitor how Detroit manages its limited resources and report back to the state. It also will make recommendations to the mayor and help the city in preparing its 3-year budget.

“This is not a panacea. This is not going to be a quick fix,” Council President Charles Pugh said. “We’re going to have to do more cutting.”

Pugh voted for the deal.

Still, it likely will be a matter of years before the changes to Detroit’s financial and operational structure show results, state Treasurer Andy Dillon said Wednesday.

“I think it’s a multiyear process,” Dillon said. “I don’t think it’s two years. It’s probably closer to five. It’s going to take a long time. The city didn’t get here overnight.”

Under terms of the deal approved by the council on a 5-4 vote, Bing and the council would maintain authority over the city’s finances and budget but would be required to renegotiate recently ratified union contracts and share decision-making with a newly hired project manager and chief financial officer. A nine-member board would monitor the city’s fiscal restructuring.

“The council has acted responsibly to put Detroit on the path to financial stability,” Snyder said in a statement. “We all want Detroit to succeed … While the council’s action is a positive step, there’s no doubt that much work remains. The magnitude of the city’s financial challenges means that many difficult decisions lie ahead. We must build on this spirit of cooperation and be willing to act in the city’s long-term interests.”

The Detroit case is the highest-profile yet involving a controversial year-old Michigan law that gives the state more power to intervene in financially troubled cities and school systems. Emergency managers have the power to toss out union contracts and strip locally elected leaders of authority. A petition drive aimed at overturning the Michigan law is trying to qualify for the November ballot.

Detroit faces a $200 million deficit and $13.2 billion in long-term structural debt. Council recently approved the sale of $137 million in bonds to help solve Detroit’s immediate cash flow issues and avoid possible payless paydays.

The agreement follows days of feverish negotiations between the city, council members and state Treasurer Andy Dillon.

Up until the weekend, first-term Councilman Andre Spivey had been leaning toward voting in favor of the measure. On Wednesday, he voted against it.

“There is no financial support attached,” he said after the vote. “I’m also concerned about the possible power and authority of a project manager. We won’t know six to nine months to a year (how it will work) … but it’s here now and we must work with it.”

Council members last Thursday discussed Snyder’s proposal and spent the weekend reviewing it. Some blasted a portion of the document that tossed out concessions on pay, health benefits and pensions recently reached between Bing and city unions.

Snyder has said those concessions don’t go far enough help solve the city’s fiscal challenges.

The agreement calls for the mayor to not “execute” and the council to “not approve” any changes to current collective bargaining agreements.

Bing had used the threat of an emergency manager to get the unions to come to the table. Under Public Act 4, an emergency manager would have the authority to rip up and renegotiate union contracts.

City union leaders and workers last week and on Monday urged the council not to vote on Snyder’s proposal.

“We asked the unions to come to the table … the city turned our backs on them,” Spivey said.

Those on the council, who appeared openly to support the agreement, were threatened with opposition at election time by a host of city workers and residents during public comment sessions during the meeting.

Council President Pro Tem Gary Brown told reporters after voting in favor of the deal that the agreement will help Detroit become a thriving city again.

“But make no mistake about it, the work begins today,” he said. “Now we have oversight with real teeth that will insure that city services get reshaped so that the citizens get the services they deserve.”

However, some still believe they have been sold out by those they put in office.

“This vote was horrible. Who gives away control?” said Cecily McClellan, who works in the Detroit Human Services department. “They have the authority to union bust. This has been a steadfast dismantling of the city and this is the final straw.”

Gov. Rick Snyder has a Thursday deadline by which to decide whether the city is in a financial emergency. A consent deal would give him a key option to avoid appointing an emergency manager.

Snyder spokeswoman Geralyn Lasher said Wednesday the governor’s administration remains committed to reaching a deal.

The high-stakes meetings come as Detroit Mayor Dave Bing, recovering from surgery to correct a perforated colon, was readmitted to a hospital Wednesday as a precaution because of discomfort. Bing would have to sign off on the deal for it to take effect.

The Detroit case is the highest-profile yet involving a controversial, year-old Michigan law that gives the state more power to intervene in financially troubled cities and school systems. Emergency managers have the power to toss out union contracts and strip locally elected leaders of authority. A petition drive aimed at overturning the Michigan law is trying to qualify for the November ballot.

If the consent agreement is authorized in its current form, tentative new contracts featuring wage, benefits and pension concessions negotiated between Bing and about 30 unions representing city employees will be nullified. More concessions likely will be put on the table.

“Benefits, vacation, sick time, health care, that’s all up in the air with the consent agreement,” said Yolanda Langston, Detroit chapter president of the Service Employees International Union. “Those things we are very much concerned with. We’re more concerned about the elimination of departments. We’re concerned with our jobs.”

Langston noted it is illegal for public employees to strike and said “we’re not taking that position.”

“It would be good to stand in solidarity, and it would also send a strong message if everybody was in unison,” she added.

City unions are considering their options, said John Riehl, president of American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 207.

“All these things they are putting in front of us, whether an emergency manager or a consent agreement, if they think they are going to tear up our union rights, the skies the limit,” Riehl said.

___

Martin reported from Lansing.

“Women go to the hospital and their bodies are a crime scene and treated as such,” said Bart, who still lives in Texas. “For these kits then to just to sit in a laboratory or in police vaults or wherever they sit, denies victims of sexual assault any opportunity for justice. I just wonder how many more there are?”

Bart and other rape victims spoke recently to The Associated Press in hope that other women about to go through the same painful process in Detroit learn from their experiences and know they are not alone. Detroit has begun testing some of its rape kits.

The women — who agreed to use their names for this story — know testing years-old rape kits holds no guarantee the attacker will be found and brought to justice. They also know the tangled legal process can reopen wounds that took years to heal and send horrific memories of the assault flooding back.

According to some estimates, between 180,000 and 400,000 rape kits remain untested nationwide, despite DNA technology that can swiftly link rapists to crimes.

Between 9,000 and 11,300 rape kits stored by Detroit police were collected two years ago by Michigan State Police.

The kits are being documented and tested in batches as part of a National Institute for Justice project. Initially, about 400 were chosen. Another batch of about 1,000 has been identified for testing so far this year.

The kits — 10-inch-long boxes containing swabs, evidence envelopes and information sheets detailing the examination, complications and a list of 24-hour rape crisis centers — can cost $1,200 to $1,500 to test.

Detroit’s project is funded by grants. Houston, which had a 4,000-kit backlog, has embarked on a similar project. Grants and donations helped Los Angeles city police go through about 7,000 kits.

A team that includes police, prosecutors and Michigan State University researchers is methodically inspecting each kit to determine which still can be taken to court, what protocols can prevent future backlogs and what protections should be included for victims.

“Victims will be contacted at some point,” said Rebecca Campbell, a psychology professor and member of the Detroit Sexual Assault Kit Action Research Project. “You have to make sure the way that’s done is appropriate; take into account the victim’s physical needs, support needs, resources and health needs.

“You’re reopening an incredibly tragic event. You just can’t knock on someone’s door to do that.”

Bart was attacked in 1984, and DNA swabbed during a hospital exam was stored in a rape kit. When the kit finally was tested 24 years later, DNA was added to the FBI’s Combined DNA Index System and produced a hit on Joseph Houston Jr.

“Four months after he kidnapped and raped me, he attempted to do the same with another young lady and a security guard chased him off,” Bart said.

Houston was sentenced in 1985 for kidnapping and served 19 of 50 years. His DNA was taken while in prison, even as Bart’s rape kit sat forgotten. He eventually was released but now is serving a 20-year sentence in Texas for indecency with a child.

“He could not be prosecuted for his crime against me. The statute of limitations was only five years at the time of my assault,” Bart said. “DNA evidence is tested quickly following a murder, but is not always when a woman has been raped by a stranger.”

About 55 percent of victims never report being raped, according to Scott Berkowitz, president of the Washington D.C.-based nonprofit Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network.

“When they see stories like this, that’s even more discouragement for them,” he said.

Helena Lazaro also fell through the cracks. She was kidnapped at knifepoint at a self-car wash in 1996 near her Los Angeles County home. For six hours, the 17-year-old was repeatedly raped.

“I did my rape kit. It was just terrible,” said Lazaro, now 32. “It was very impersonal. The doctor disregarded my wishes and examined parts of my body I asked him not to. The police questioned me at the same time.

“They asked, ‘Why were you at the car wash at night? Are you sure you didn’t know him? Are you sure you didn’t want it?’”

Over time, Lazaro wanted to know the status of the case, but investigators stopped returning her calls.

With the help of the Peace Over Violence advocacy group, she learned in 2009 that her kit was not tested until 2003. Charles Courtney was in jail for another crime when the kit was tested. He is serving a 25-year sentence in Ohio for another rape. When that’s completed, Courtney will serve time in California for raping her, Lazaro said.

Natasha Alexenko was 20 when she was raped and robbed at gunpoint in 1993 in her New York City apartment building. She submitted to a rape kit which “sat on a shelf collecting dust for nine and a half years,” said Alexenko, the founder of Natasha’s Justice Project, which advocates for rape victims.

In 2007, a sample from Victor Rondon matched the DNA from Alexenko’s rape. He is serving 25 to 50 years.

“I felt re-victimized knowing nothing had happened to my kit,” Alexenko said.