Police prepare for protests at Convention Center

Police are on hand outside the Pennsylvania Convention Center in anticipation of protests by members of two unions shut out of work at the facility.

As of 7:30 a.m., a handful of protesters from Teamsters Local 107 stood outside the center, outnumbered by uniformed and plainclothes police officers.

Registration for the 11th annual World Congress on Industrial Biotechnology is scheduled for Monday at the Convention Center. About 1,100 people are expected to attend the convention, which runs through Thursday.

The Teamsters local and Carpenters Local 8 were locked out last week after failing to agree in a timely manner to new work rules and lost their convention jobs to other unions.

On Sunday, John McNichol, the Convention Center's chief executive officer, said he expected any protests Monday to be civil.

McNichol said reforming the work rules would eventually help repair the Convention Center's reputation and make it a more appealing destination for major gatherings.

"People come here, and they love our city, they love our restaurants, they love our walkable streets," McNichol said. "The problem is the cost and the hassle."

He said unions were not to blame for all the complaints at center, citing management problems last year, too. But taking on labor costs sends a message that the Convention Center is prepared to evolve in order to attract more business, he said.

Representatives of the Carpenters and Teamsters did not return calls for comment Sunday. Earlier, the Carpenters issued a statement that said: "The Carpenters will do what is necessary to right this wrong and stand up for their members."

The two locals belatedly agreed to the new work rules on Friday, but Convention Center management rebuffed them. Officials said the unions missed a May 5 deadline to accept the changes and said they would not revisit the issue.

The unions contend they were misled about the deadline, which center management said was not so.

As a result, the Carpenters' and Teamsters' work will be divided among the unions that agreed to the new rules - Laborers Local 332, Electrical Workers Local 98, Stagehands Local 8, and Iron Workers 405.

The center, which completed a $780 million expansion in 2011, has not met its financial expectations. The expansion was supposed to help it draw up to 30 major conventions a year, but fewer than half that have been scheduled per year through 2017.

Among the new rules is one that will allow exhibitors to set up booths (up to 600 square feet, double the present limit) with their own full-time employees instead of the center's union workers. Another rule institutes a standard drug-testing program for union workers.

Source: Philly.com