The city of Wilmington has sued both its police and firefighter unions, separately, over labor negotiations related to overtime pay and the city's residency requirement.
Both cases, filed in the past two months, are escalations of disputes the city and the unions were negotiating out of court under independently appointed legal monitors.
Unsatisfied with those proceedings, the city filed lawsuits in Delaware Chancery Court.
Both unions have yet to respond to the claims in court, and neither responded to multiple requests to comment for this story.
The city sued the Fraternal Order of Police Lodge No. 1 in June.
It is seeking to throw out an arbitrator's ruling in favor of the union in a case related to the city's residency requirement, a rule that city employees must move to Wilmington within six months of being hired, and remain city residents for at least five years.