The Pennsylvania Convention Center’s attempt to reach a new contract with its unions came crashing down this morning (Thursday), when members of the carpenters union went on strike and set up pickets around the 1-million-square foot building.
The strike comes at the height of the summer convention season. The Diabetes Association was scheduled to bring 10,000 delegates to town for a four-day convention next week.
Unless the issues that led to the strike are resolved, the center will go dark. The Diabetes Association will not be able to convene. The city will lose the $23 million the convention was expected to generate in spin-off spending by delegates.
This confrontation has been long in the making. The convention center board is in the midst of negotiating of a new labor agreement with the six unions that work in the center. Sources said they had been negotiating around the clock when Carpenter’s Union President Ed Coryell Sr. walked out and ordered the strike early today.
Four of the other unions – electricians, riggers, laborers and stagehands – have not joined the strike as of yet. A fifth union, the teamsters, decided to honor the carpenter’s union picket line.
Since the teamsters handle the loading dock, trucks bringing in sets and other material for the Diabetes Association’s convention cannot enter the loading area, effectively shutting down all operations.
The strike comes at the worst possible time for the center. Criticized by convention bookers as a difficult site – due mostly to labor hassles and what is viewed as excessive overtime – the city has been losing new and repeat business at an alarming rate.
When the $780 million expansion of the center was opened in 2011 it was expected to bring a flood of new business and backers predicted it would allow the city to host 20 to 30 big conventions each year. The center has 21 conventions this year, but after that the numbers drop off quickly – down to 6 by 2016.
The center’s 15-member board hired an outside manager to operate the center and began negotiations with the unions for a new labor agreement that, it hoped, would resolve the thorny issues around customer service and fees. The old agreement with the unions expired July 1 and the parties have been meeting regularly since then.
According to sources close to the talks, wages are not at issue. The board has put a decent wage-increase package on the table. But, the most forceful union – the carpenter’s – apparently is balking at the changes that center around the issue of “exhibitor rights.” This refers to a wide range of issues, including whether exhibitors can do any work as well as standards for customer courtesy.
It’s a ticklish situation for the politically-appointed board because the carpenter’s union president Ed Coryell Sr. recently was named as a member of the board. Today, Coryell is leading a strike against the center’s management, of which he is a member.
A spokes person for the center declined to offer details, other than to say there had been a “work stoppage.” A handful of pickets were deployed at the loading dock end of the center on Race St.
The strike could have widespread repercussions, cementing the center’s reputation as a place to avoid because of labor troubles, meaning the loss of more convention business. To force a major convention to cancel – as seems likely with the Diabetes Association – also would be a disaster, costing the city millions in lost business.
The union’s timing, though, is impeccable. Coryell is offering the board a clear choice: back off on its attempts to force changes in the agreement when it comes to exhibitors rights or lose a major convention due to open next week.
Source: Axisphilly.com
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