Pennsylvania Convention Center foes dueling over Craiglist call for workers

The Craigslist post looked promising:

"Immediate help needed $16hr. + OT," read the headline, followed by "Help needed at the Pennsylvania Convention Center Philadelphia over the course of the next six weeks."

The posting went up Tuesday evening.

By Wednesday morning, the number listed on the post - leading to the Convention Center's labor supply office - was ringing nonstop with dozens of people seeking work, said the center's chief executive, John McNichol.

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By midafternoon, the post been pulled from the website, flagged as a possible fraud.

"It's a scam," McNichol said. "I would call it an educated scam. It's more than mischief. We fielded phone calls from several dozen people who are earnestly looking for work, which is unfortunate."

The Convention Center will host two of its biggest and most labor-intensive events soon - the Philadelphia Auto Show, starting Jan. 31, and the Philadelphia Flower Show, which begins Feb. 28.

There is a different point of view, however.

"They are pushing the panic button because they don't have the skilled workforce to meet the needs of exhibitors. It's a desperate attempt to fill slots," said Martin O'Rourke, spokesman for Metropolitan Regional Council of Carpenters.

The carpenters union and Teamsters Local 107 lost jurisdiction in the hall in May, after they failed to sign a customer satisfaction agreement by a deadline set by the Convention Center Authority's board.

The unions disputed the deadline and the case is slated to be heard by the Pennsylvania Labor Relations Board next month.

Since May, the two unions have been regularly protesting their exclusion from the hall while four other unions and the PCC's private management company, SMG, of West Conshohocken, have divvied up the unions' former work.

If the Craigslist advertisement is a fraud - O'Rourke doesn't think it is - the carpenters had nothing to do with it, he said. O'Rourke said he has heard that people who call are sent to the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, Local 8.

"That is nonsense," McNichol said.

IATSE Local 8 is actively seeking members, according to its website.

After the carpenters lost jurisdiction, the stage employees union gained 150,000 hours of work a year at the Convention Center, said its leader, Michael Barnes.

They earn $40 an hour, plus $13 for benefits - not the advertised $16 an hour, Barnes said.

Barnes said he saw the post, but knew nothing about it.

"It was done out of malice," he said. He predicts his members are going to "knock the ball out of the park" in setting up the Auto Show.

Nichols said the Convention Center has already set up the necessary labor for the Auto and Flower Shows.

"We have not failed to fill a single labor call since May and do not expect to have any issues with large labor calls in the future," he said, praising the stagehands' work.

The Convention Center is investigating the source of the Craigslist post, he said, but thinks it must have been placed by someone with inside knowledge of the PCC's internal labor phone.

Source:  Philly.com