At Dems' convention, politicans may fight, but unions won't

Philadelphia's building trades unions have signed an agreement promising not to strike or conduct work stoppages during July's Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia.

The agreement also covers work at the Pennsylvania Convention Center, which will host meetings and PoliticalFest during the Democratic National Convention, set for late July.

The agreement, convention officials say, covers the Wells Fargo Center, where the main events of the convention will be held.

"Several hundred of our highly trained tradesmen and tradeswomen will be working seamlessly and around the clock to put together this amazing show in just seven weeks," union leader John Dougherty said in a statement. "We will make Philadelphia and the DNC extremely proud."

Dougherty heads the Philadelphia Building Trades Council, which is a group of unions involved in construction, as well as the politically powerful electricians' union.

"Our valued labor partners will ensure that this convention is built efficiently with an unparalleled quality of craftsmanship," said Leah D. Daughtry, chief executive of the Democratic National Convention Committee.

The agreement, known as a project-labor agreement, was also signed by Patrick J. Eiding, president of the AFL-CIO in Philadelphia, as well as leaders of unions laborers, stagehands, teamsters and carpenters, plus officials from the party and the city's host committee.

The agreement also covers work at the Pennsylvania Convention Center, which will host meetings and PoliticalFest during the convention, which will be July 25-28.

Last year, the Metropolitan Regional Council of Carpenters, which has complained that it was unfairly ousted from working at the Pennsylvania Convention Center, urged national Democratic legislators to boycott events at the center.

There was talk of union carpenters' picketing and otherwise protesting at the Convention Center while delegates and reporters were in town.

Since then, the head of the council, Edward J. Coryell, was ousted and Philadelphia's carpenters' locals have been folded into the Northeast Regional Council of Carpenters, based in northern New Jersey.

Representatives from the Northeast Regional Council signed the project labor agreement involving Wells Fargo Center and the Convention Center and also pledged not to picket or stage protests at the Convention Center while the delegates, politicians and journalists are in town, according to a source familiar with the agreement.

Even though the carpenters' union remains at odds with the Convention Center's management and other unions that work at the center, all the building trades have worked together for years at the Wells Fargo Center.

Construction of a political convention moves on a fast track, with the trades erecting what amounts to a pop-up city for 50,000 people at the Wells Fargo Center, including 6,000 delegates, 15,000 journalists and a handful of former presidents.

The agreement went into effect on June 3, but workers gained access to the building May 31. They must completely tear down operations by Aug. 19, three weeks after the end of the convention.

Source: Philly.com