CHICAGO (CBS) – If there ever were one, this is an “ouch” time in Chicago, being on pins and needles about the teachers and the mayor.

The teachers’ strike may be over, but what’s next? And what’s after that? Hang on to the Band-Aids everyone. The cops are next, then the firemen. Their contracts are almost up, and the rank and file don’t like the mayor any more than the teachers do.

Big pins and needles coming up.

It’s against the law, of course, for cops and firemen to strike, but if they do, or threaten to, what’s the mayor to do? Seek an injunction, and assign cops to arrest cops?

I think, Mr. Mayor, you ought not provoke the cops the way you provoke the teachers.

They understand you don’t have the money to give them what they want. But they know, as we all know, that the money mess is caused by politicians, and they’ll stab you with pins and needles.

You can’t scare cops and firemen the way you scare teachers, and sometimes, Mr. Mayor, the way you scare us.