If this is the deal, Philly teachers should strike

Apparently the old saying is wrong: You can get blood from a stone after all. In a world where "the American Dream" has become a year in which your salary stays the same, the so-called City of Brotherly Love is on the brink of setting a new standard in squeezing middle-class workers to death. It's not like we haven't seen this story before: Working men and women asked to take a sizable pay cut...and work longer hours...and pay more for shrinking benefits. Usually such reports alternate with the news that the CEO of that same outfit is leaving with a golden parachute worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, maybe millions. Read more here…

Among Philly teachers, anger and dismay at contract offer

Naughton had read about the Philadelphia School District's initial contract offer to its teachers union - a 13 percent pay cut for those making over $55,000, an end to seniority-based positions, and smaller provisos such as an end to a guaranteed adequate supply of textbooks - and felt a great sense of urgency.  Read more here…

Nutter pitches range of steps to help business while municipal trades picket outside

Mayor Nutter offered the business community Tuesday a mix of lower wage taxes, improved revenue collection, and help for start-ups as a prescription for continued recovery and growth in the city. but as Nutter spoke at the Philadelphia Marriott Downtown, members of AFSCME District Council 33, which represents 11,000 nonuniformed city workers, most in blue-collar jobs, protested outside. They held signs that read "Mayor Nutter, It's Time for a Fair Contract."  Read more here…

Dockworkers union releases labor contract details

A union that represents East Coast dockworkers  have released details about the master contract tentatively agreed to by the union and ocean carriers.

The new contract will run through September 2018; it will provide a $1 per hour wage increase in October 2014, another $1 per hour wage increase in 2016 and a third $1 per hour wage increase in 2017, according to the longshoremen’s union. New employees will start at $20 per hour, and health care coverage will continue at no cost for eligible employees.

Read more here…

Philly Labor Battle joined by Forces Statewide

Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter's legal crusade to force pension and benefit changes on unionized city workers has been joined by thousands of interested parties on both sides. Read more here....

DRPA to borrow $500 million for ongoing repairs to bridges and PATCO

Infrastructure repairs and maintenance are critical to this region’s economic developmental and growth.

The Delaware River Port Authority will borrow $500 million to pay for ongoing repairs to its toll bridges and PATCO commuter rail line.  Read more here...

Labor shortages in construction point out at Latino workers

Every morning, Maximo Pena stands on the curb across Saint Mary’s Church in Lakewood, New Jersey, where contractors pick up construction laborers. He came from Tamaulipas, Mexico in 2001 and became a construction carpenter and framer OTJ (on the job).

At $12 to $15 dollars, Pena knows he is behind his documented and unionized peers.  Read more here…

The Keystone to Bringing Jobs Back to PA

Six GOP lawmakers introduced a proposal to make Pennsylvania, the “Keystone State,” the nation’s 25th right-to-work state.  Read more here…

Fight against Nutter's proposal for city staffers expands to nearly all unionized Pennsylvania workers

The city filed suit Feb. 1 in Philadelphia Common Pleas Court, seeking permission to impose its most recent offer on about 6,800 members of AFSCME District Council 33. The package includes reduced pensions for new employees, the right to furlough employees for up to three weeks a year, and new work rules to cut overtime, combined with pay raises totaling 4.5 percent over the next two years.  Read more here…

GOP's anti-union wing wants PA Right to Work rule

State Representatives Daryl Metcalfe (R-Butler), Stephen Bloom (R-Cumberland), Jim Cox (R-Berks), Fred Keller (R-Union/Snyder), Jerry Knowles (R-Berks/Schuylkill), and Kathy Rapp (R-Warren), joined by private business-funded Americans for Prosperity, the nonunion Associated Builders and Contractors, National Right to Work Committee, National Federation of Business, PA Chamber of Business and Industry, PA Manufacturers’ Association, Pennsylvanians for Right to Work, Stop Teacher Strikes, and others, plans a Harrisburg news conference today to press Gov. Corbett to follow Michigan's example and pass a "Right to Work" law that would prevent unions from collecting dues from people who don't want to pay them. Read more here…

State labor movement lines up against the Nutter administration

Lawyers representing close to a million Pennsylvania ­ workers – including virtually all unionized government employees in the state, from sanitation workers to teachers -- have joined AFSCME District 33, Philadelphia’s largest municipal union, fighting the Nutter administration’s bid to impose contract terms after a four-year standoff. Read more here…

Toll results disappoint Wall Street

Homebuilder Toll Brothers Inc., of Horsham, said net income for the quarter ended Jan. 31 was $4.4 million, or 3 cents a share, compared with a loss of $2.8 million, or 2 cents, a year earlier. Analysts had expected earnings of 10 cents a share, according to data compiled by Bloomberg, and Toll shares fell 9 percent to close at $33.56. Revenue for the quarter rose 32 percent to $424.6 million, compared with the average analyst estimate of $503.6 million. The company delivered 746 homes in the quarter, about 100 fewer than analysts projected, said Robert Wetenhall, an analyst at RBC Capital Markets L.L.C. - Bloomberg News

City's Jobs Commission issues its report, with recommendations

It also suggests that the city's private and public workforce and business-development agencies step up their games, with the underlying recommendation that all groups should do what they already do, only better and more, and find more efficient ways to coordinate their efforts  Read more here…

Judge sides with DRPA officers, orders binding arbitration in bridge agency labor dispute

A federal judge has sided with the union representing Delaware River Port Authority police officers, denying the DRPA’s motion for summary judgment, and granting the union’s request to enter into binding arbitration in a labor dispute between the bridge agency and its first responders. Read more here…

Developers envision Penn's Landing park as next phase of riverfront renovation

FOR DECADES, everyone from citizens to city leaders to developers has cursed Interstate 95 for cutting the city off from its waterfront. But with weedy, trash-strewn lots, crumbling piers and industrial sites hogging up acre after acre, the waterfront sometimes seemed a place unworthy of visiting anyhow.

Now the city wants to bring the people to the river by overcoming the most significant, planned, barrier known to man, Interstate 95.  It plans on accomplishing this worthy goal through the execution of one of the largest ever heavy & civil projects in the region!  Read more here…

Pennsylvania Convention Center Board Approves Issuance of RFP for Operations Management Firm

The Board of Directors of the Pennsylvania Convention Center Authority (PCCA) voted today to move forward with the formal issuance of a Request for Proposals for private operations management services.  Read more here….

ATF offers $15K reward for six Temple arson fires

A reward of up to $15,000 is being offered for information leadings to arrests in a series of arson fires set at a Temple University construction site earlier this week.  Read more here….

Six fires in two days at Temple University construction site

Federal and city authorities are investigating six small fires set over the last two days at the construction site for a new high-rise residence hall at Temple University.  Read more here….

Temple program empowers minority firms

A great program developed by a team of committed constructors and development professionals in the region. I am really looking forward to watching it develop and measuring the program’s success for the community and Skanska USA.  Read more here..

Gay steelworker sues Conshohocken plant over partner benefits

A WEST Conshohocken steelworker has sued his employer and the board of trustees of the Steelworkers Health and Welfare Fund for denying insurance coverage to the his husband. Read more here…

AFSCME President Slams Pat Quinn, Michael Nutter As 'Turncoats' Who Must 'Pay'

WASHINGTON -- One of the top labor leaders in the country ripped into two prominent Democratic lawmakers Monday morning, calling them "turncoats" and unfavorably comparing them to high-profile anti-union Republicans. Read more here....

PENSIONS: Nutter Appeal To Ct. Could Trigger Labor War

AFSCME District Council 33 President Pete Matthews responded to a lawsuit filed by Mayor Michael Nutter in the Pennsylvania Supreme Court at a press conference last night.  Read more here…

PENNSYLVANIA CONVENTION CENTER BOARD ISSUES RFP FOR OPS MANAGEMENT

AMERICAS - The Board of Directors of the Pennsylvania Convention Center Authority (PCCA) has voted to issue a formal Request for Proposals (RFP) for private operations management services at the venue.  Read more here….

Head Of Philadelphia Trade Unions Supports Convention Center Privatization Inquiry

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) — A top Philadelphia union leader says he’s fully behind a move by the board of the Pennsylvania Convention Center to look at potentially privatizing the center’s management.  Read more here.....

Convention Center board votes to seek privatization proposals - Inquirer

“Timing was a clear impetus for the top-down review.” “Collective-bargaining agreements and the 10-year customer-service agreement are set to expire in the next few months.” "This is a good time to undertake this sort of review," Fox said.  Really?  In the midst of collective bargaining, it is a good time to transition leadership?

Read the Inquirer article here.....

Pa. Convention Center Authority votes to pursue private operator

“Our goal is to ensure the newly expanded Pennsylvania Convention Center meets its full potential as an economic driver for the city of Philadelphia, the region, and the state,” convention center Chairman Gregory J. Fox said.”  Read more here…..

Union: Nutter threatens public employees statewide

The president of District Council 33, Philadelphia’s blue-collar union, held a news conference Wednesday, slamming Nutter’s recent decision to ask the Common Pleas Court for permission to impose a new contract on District Council 33.

Nutter is now pressing the state Supreme Court to hear the case right away. Read more here....

Nutter asks state Supreme Court to intervene in contract dispute

The Nutter administration asked the state Supreme Court on Tuesday to immediately hear its argument for imposing a contract on 6,800 blue-collar municipal workers. Read more here….

Looks like more good money chasing bad.

Business, unions negotiating guest worker program

WASHINGTON - Business leaders and labor union officials are delving into high-stakes negotiations over a particularly contentious element of immigration reform , a guest worker program to ensure future immigrants come here legally

An interesting read.  Read more here….

Newspaper handlers’ union ratifies contract

The union representing paper handlers at The Inquirer and Philadelphia Daily News ratified a new two-year contract Monday after having rejected a tentative agreement Friday.  Read more here....

Nutter sues for right to impose contract terms on 6,800 city workers

The Nutter administration filed suit Friday seeking permission from Philadelphia Common Pleas Court to impose new contract terms - including modest raises, potential furloughs, reduced overtime, and a new pension model for future employees - on about 6,800 workers represented by AFSCME District Council 33.  Read more here.....

Stagehands at Philadelphia Theatre Company agree to contract, ending strike

The 27 members of Local 8 of the International Association of Theatrical and Stage Employees approved a three-year deal that gives them, Read more here....

Nutter will ask court to let him impose terms on DC 33

After years of stalemate, the Nutter administration on Friday asked a judge to allow the city to impose his "final offer" on the city's largest union.   Read more here…. 

IATSE Local #8 and Philadelphia Theater Company reach a tentative agreement.

Deal reached at 2:11 am on Friday, February 1, 2013.  Congratulations to both Management and Labor.  The show must go on!