Labor Standoff Threatens Democratic Convention

[Yoshie Furuhashi <furuhashi.1@xxxxxxx>]

*****   "I [John Kerry] led the fight to put 100,000 cops on the
street in 1994." - Jan. 30, Wilmington, Del.

Kerry was very involved in shaping the 1994 anti-crime bill that
included a Clinton administration initiative to help localities hire
100,000 more police officers.

(Maria L. La Ganga and Janet Hook, "Sizing Up the Democratic
Contenders' Strengths: Kerry," February 26, 2004,
<http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/2004/la-na-kerry26feb26,1,7958677.story?coll=la-home-headlines>)
*****

"President Clinton's 1994 crime bill added 58 more crimes that are
punishable by death" ("5 Reasons To Oppose The Death Penalty,"
<http://www.nodeathpenalty.org/fiveRs.html>).

*****   In Boston, a 'Game of Chicken'
Labor Standoff Threatens to Tarnish Democratic Convention

By Jonathan Finer
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, March 21, 2004; Page A04

BOSTON, March 20 -- At Mayor Thomas M. Menino's most high-profile
appearances in this city these days, Boston's finest turn out in
force. A few are there to provide security for the Democratic mayor.
The rest show up to heckle him.

Four months before an estimated 35,000 delegates, politicians and
members of the media arrive here for the Democratic National
Convention, Menino is mired in a bitter standoff with 28 city unions
that are working without contracts, led by the Boston Police
Patrolmen's Association (BPPA), which is threatening a picket line
outside the nationally televised event.

"I think you have to assume that it would never get that far. You'd
think the pressure on both sides to settle this would be too great,"
said Edmund Beard, dean of the John W. McCormack Graduate School of
Policy Studies at UMass-Boston. "But this could happen. It's not at
all given that they will reach an agreement, and if so it could be a
huge embarrassment to the city, to the candidate and to the
Democratic Party. This is the party that is supposed to be aligned
with organized labor."

Since 1968, when antiwar activists clashed with police at the
Democratic National Convention in Chicago, political conventions have
often been more noteworthy for what goes on outside the assembly hall
than for the business conducted on the floor. In 2000, protesters
filled the streets of Philadelphia, where Republicans gathered, and
Los Angeles, where Democrats met.

The ongoing labor dispute is just one of the side issues with which
planners are grappling as the showcase event approaches. The Fleet
Center, where the convention is to be held, is next to one of the
city's largest rail hubs, and security concerns may force the
station's closure during the four-day event, inconveniencing 25,000
daily commuters. Parts of Boston's newly completed underground
expressway may also be closed for security reasons, snarling traffic
beyond the already legendary levels here.

Gov. Mitt Romney (R) this week suggested that the convention be moved
to the city's new $800 million convention center, located in South
Boston, where security might be easier to provide. State Democrats
quickly dismissed the suggestion as politically motivated
troublemaking, and said it was too late to make a change.

Romney and Menino are also feuding over the revenue expected to be
generated by the event, with Menino asking that the additional tax
money the state brings in, estimated at more than $7 million, be
shared with the city. Meanwhile, organizers said two weeks ago that
they are working to make up a $7 million fundraising shortfall in a
convention budget that has swelled from $49.5 million to $64.5
million.

"These things are all par for the course," said convention chief
executive Rod O'Connor. "We are on track for a great convention." He
reminded reporters at a news conference this week that in 2000, some
Los Angeles unions agreed to contracts just three weeks before the
convention began.

It is the increasingly acrimonious dispute between the city and some
of its workers that has Democrats here most concerned. Fueling
optimism that the stalemate might soon be broken, Boston came to
tentative terms this week with three unions, including two groups of
police detectives and the 8,000-member teachers union, the city's
largest labor group.

But the 1,400-member BPPA, which is pushing for higher wages and more
officers on the force, is digging in its heels.

"Bargaining right now is nonexistent," said Thomas J. Nee, president
of the BPPA and the head of a nationwide coalition of patrolmen's
unions. "The truth is unavoidable for the mayor. He has adequate
resources to fund these agreements. The behavior of City Hall is
contemptuous and disrespectful."

Boston's patrolmen, who have worked without a contract since 2002,
are paid about 21 percent below the national average, said Ronald J.
York, founder of Policepay.net Inc., which keeps a national database
of officer compensation and serves as a consultant to the BPPA.

New York City, where Republicans will hold their convention a month
later, is also at odds with its patrolmen's union, York said. But
with organized labor playing such a critical role in Democratic
politics, York added, the rift is more striking here. "It's the
biggest game of chicken you ever saw in your life," he said. "And
something's gonna have to give pretty quick, or it's gonna be a
problem for both sides."

Nee said the two sides have not sat down at the same table since Nov. 13.

Thomas F. Birmingham, the former Democratic president of the
Massachusetts Senate, who was called in by the mayor to help broker a
deal, said he is optimistic a solution will be reached by July 26,
when the convention begins. "The threat of disruption of the
convention is powerful leverage," he said. "The threat is more potent
than the execution, because once the convention leaves, we still have
to work out an agreement."

Menino, the driving force behind Boston's bid to host the convention
for the first time, has become a lightning rod for the unions' ire.
At the Samuel Adams brewery this week, where he announced the
locations for the convention welcome parties for state delegations,
local news outlets reported that 100 BPPA members turned up to
protest.

A group of Boston unions placed a quarter-page ad in The Washington
Post this month warning, "We are united as never before." A BPPA ad
in the April issue of a law-enforcement trade magazine invites
officers from around the country to protest in Boston during the
convention.

During the State of the State address in January, the group
distributed fliers offering "Greetings from Meninoville," which said
the mayor "doesn't care about Boston, he cares about himself." Menino
was not invited to the Greater Boston Labor Council's annual Labor
Day breakfast last year for the first time since he took office.

"The irony is Menino is as much a working-class guy as any mayor in
the United States today. He comes from the working class, he talks
like he is in the working class, and he has negotiated any number of
contracts generous to the unions," said UMass-Boston's Beard.

The BPPA will step up its attacks in a television and radio campaign
in the coming weeks, Nee said, focusing in part on what he calls the
city's unwillingness to tap into a more than $491 million "general
fund" surplus on its books. But state law prohibits the city from
spending most of that money. Once future spending commitments are
subtracted, the available funds amount to $36 million, according to
Lisa Signori, the city's budget director.

Menino said in an interview that while agreements could be reached
with some unions soon, the city and patrolmen are far apart. He said
he offered the union arbitration nine months ago, but was rebuffed.
"We could have had this completed if they had been willing to sit at
the table. We can't spend money we don't have."

In response to some of the mayor's recent comments to the Boston
Globe, which were interpreted as disparaging to the labor movement,
the national AFL-CIO's executive council passed a resolution saying,
"The prospect of a Democratic Convention with a Democratic Mayor in a
strong union city under these conditions is untenable and cannot be
tolerated. . . . To hold [the] convention in a city that does not
respect its own employees or their unions is not an option."

Public employees are barred by law from striking. But Nee said
convention delegates would be asked to stay home unless a contract is
reached, and that police from other states are prepared to join the
picket, a suggestion the Boston Herald called "insane."

Michael Meehan, a spokesman for the campaign of Sen. John F. Kerry
(Mass.), who has strong labor backing, would say only that the
presumptive Democratic presidential nominee "hopes that all parties
involved work out this issue to their mutual satisfaction."

The BPPA has caused trouble for a Democratic nominee before. In 1988,
it made national headlines by endorsing Vice President George H.W.
Bush (R) over home-state governor Michael S. Dukakis (D).

This year, Nee said, the union is withholding an endorsement to see
how the contract dispute plays out. "We have a long-standing
professional relationship with [Kerry]," he said. "But the
responsibility here is on the mayor."

<http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A11418-2004Mar20.html>   *****
--
Yoshie

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