Trade union members went on strike Thursday at the Pennsylvania Convention Center in a dispute over proposed changes in work rules.
A dozen pickets took up positions outside the center on Vine Street, but declined to speak to a reporter. Some held signs saying, "Unfair."
One union leader, who refused to be identified, said he thinks the disagreements could be settled quickly.
Four of the center's six trade unions - those representing carpenters, stagehands, teamsters and riggers - walked off the job while a fifth, representing the electricians, was honoring the picket line, according to a union insider. Only laborers reported for work.
Their agreements originally were set to expire July 14, but they were extended until 12:01 a.m. Thursday.
PCC chairman of the board Gregory J. Fox said the walkout came as a surprise and stemmed from an effort in contract talks to make "changes to exhibitor rights that were necessary to increase the number of convention and other bookings at the center."
In exchange for the unspecified changes, Fox said the center offered unions a 10-year contract with annual 3 percent pay increases.
"The main issue is the [Pennsylvania Convention Center Authority's] insistence on further relaxing the most lenient exhibitor rights of any convention center on the east coast, thereby taking away more and more of the unions' work," Frank Keel, a spokesman for the electricians' union, wrote in an e-mail.
A representative of the hotel's group, who refused to be identified, described the strike as "a lot of posturing" by the union bosses "to show their members they still have clout" on the eve of a private firm taking over some of the center's key functions.
Union leaders and convention center management were meeting at a union hall away from the center, and at least one union leader expressed optimism that issues would be resolved by the end of the day.
The walkout coincided with the first day of the move-in for an American Association of Diabetes Educators convention scheduled to begin Aug. 7.
The strike comes at a critical time as the Pennsylvania Convention Center Authority, the Philadelphia Convention and Visitors Bureau, the Greater Philadelphia Hotel Association and the unions are trying to resolve their differences and stop the finger pointing as to who is to blame for the city not being able to lure the largest conventions here, and why some that come for the first time never return.
The hotels' group and unions, in particular, have clashed over whether complaints about high union costs are a big reason for the lack of major convention business to fill the recently expanded Convention Center 12 months a year.
The unions said they were being unfairly singled out.
"No strike can be helpful to either side," said Teamsters Local 107 president William Hamilton, in response to question about how the strike impacts efforts to market the Convention Center.
"I think there are more issues than that," he said.
Hamilton repeated what the unions have been saying for years: The unions have given up overtime and allowed a lot more leeway to exhibitors over the years.
The problem, he said, is that exhibition management companies, which set up the shows, "are pocketing the money" and not passing the savings on to convention center customers, the associations holding their meetings at the hall.
That practice unfortunately contributes to the city's reputation, he said, and allows the exhibition management companies to blame unions.
An exhibitor-friendly agreement has been in place and "quite frankly, they haven't used it," Hamilton said, referring to the convention center's management and to the management of the show companies.
The PCCA Board voted overwhelmingly June 5 to hire private management company, SMG of Conshohocken, to take over some essential functions of the Convention Center. After the vote, board chairman Fox said the move was to improve the Center's efficiency and become more competitive in attracting top conventions.
SMG recently won contracts in Detroit and Chicago to operate the convention centers in those cities - both of which are also heavily union.
Source: Phily.com
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