Should the convention center expansion be allowed to die as a result of not being able to come together on this issue?

Or should they scrap the requirement of hiring union workers on the project, if it comes to this point.

If the unions cannot get it together to submit complete paperwork as requested by council, on minority hiring, then do they deserve the protection they are given by city council?

70% of them do not even live within the city boundaries.

Certainly unions provide protection for the common citizen from exploitation. But in this case, what exactly is it, that we are protecting?

http://www.philly.com/inquirer/local...er_accord.html

Another deadline will be blown today on the $700 million expansion of the Convention Center, as start of construction awaits a deal between the building-trades unions and City Council over minority hiring.

The Convention Center Authority, already working on a razor-thin margin to retain conventions in March and April 2011, will not be able to make its deadline today for sending out bids on the project, authority chairman Thomas "Buck" Riley said yesterday. That could jeopardize the center's ability to reel in those conventions and their 32,000 attendees.
"And I'm not just crying wolf," Riley said.
The question now on the table: Do the unions intend to comply with what Council is asking, or could the standoff kill the expansion altogether?
In December, Council passed a resolution that prohibits the city's finance director from signing a project labor agreement - required by the governor before construction can begin - until the city receives from the 15 unions in the Philadelphia Building and Construction Trades Council plans for minority inclusion and demographic statistics.
Council members have argued that minorities have long been underrepresented in the building-trades unions. Federal statistics show that building-trades unions in the Philadelphia region are only 8 percent minority, and an Inquirer analysis of statistics from the Office of Housing and Community Development on publicly funded projects showed that 80 percent of the union workers are white and 70 percent live outside the city. Yesterday, Council failed to offer the required resolution allowing projects to be bid because, members said, the unions as a group had not provided the information or plans they were supposed to. Even after what some called a "historic" meeting with labor leaders and Council members last week, only 12 of 15 unions submitted information to Council by Wednesday, and much of it was incomplete, Council sources said.

So council will again blink in the face of the all powerful unions, and continue to mandate that they alone can work on lucrative government jobs.

The same unions whose members (70%) are not even residents of the city. And who are refusing to even give to the same city council thier own membership demographics.

Why are they protecting these people? Answer, because they have CLOUT come election time.

They are not doing the right thing. And in order to save thier own jobs.


Why do these council people continue to get re-elected by citizens they refuse to serve? 25% of the city is poor. But we are requiring these construction jobs go to a group which lives 70% outside the city limits. 45% of the city is black but these groups have starkly different numbers, 80% white. strangely, non-union construction numbers mirror the city's demographics...

I dont expect city council to hold up this project indefinitely in order to get the information.

I expect city council to eliminate the requirement that requires union people to build this thing. Open it up for residents of the city of philadelphia to build.

I expect them to represent the people of the city.

I also expect to be disapointed.


Minority-hiring standoff at Convention Center could be resolved today

By DAVE DAVIES
Philadelphia Daily News
daviesd@phillynews.com 215-854-2595
The high-stakes standoff between City Council and the city's building trades unions over the lack of minorities in their ranks could be resolved today with a vote to get the convention center expansion project moving.

After a heated confrontation in December, Council voted to withhold approval of the expansion project until construction unions disclose the racial composition of their membership and commit to long term diversity plans.

Council members and others have been meeting with union leaders in recent days, and as of yesterday, it was unclear whether all 15 locals on the project would give Council what it wants before today's meeting.

"I think we've got a very good chance of reaching a resolution (today)," Convention Center Authority Chairman Buck Riley said yesterday. "There's reasonable optimism it will happen."

Riley said construction bids should have gone out two weeks ago, and further delay will drive up costs and jeopardize two large conventions committed to coming to an expanded center in 2011.

"Our costs increase at the rate of two and a quarter million dollars a month," Riley said. "If we lose those conventions, it will ripple through the industry."

The lack of diversity on city construction sites has been a contentious issue for years, and Councilwoman Donna Reed Miller said Council's action on the convention center has gotten union leaders' attention.

Miller said Friday many unions had worked hard to come up with the information Council wants. "(Cement Masons president) Mike Fera understood and gave us exactly what we wanted," Miller said.

Several sources said a key holdout among the unions has been carpenters union business manager Ed Coryell, who wasn't prepared to provide the information requested.

But sources familiar with the negotiations said Coryell is to attend a meeting early today with Council leaders. The entire Council is scheduled to meet at 10:30, and could vote on a resolution needed to approve the expansion project.

Coryell did not return a phone call for comment Friday.

State Rep. Dwight Evans, who worked to get state funding for the project and to bring council and the unions together, said yesterday "the expansion project needs to be released. It can't be held hostage anymore."

Evans said that Philadelphia has many financial needs in Harrisburg, and the city's prospects will suffer if Council doesn't act quickly on the expansion.

"Nobody can match my record of advocating for this city and getting results on economic opportunity, education, you name it," Evans said yesterday. "And I am becoming extremely impatient."

I say screw the non union scabs. 90% of them don't live in the city either. It was the unions that got this job approved and kicked the politicians in the ass for funding. If the bros on city council have a problem with it then vote their asses out.

I don't get the constant harping of "70% of them don't even live in the city". The "them" to which you're referring are the members of the unions, which are REGIONAL councils. Of course most of their members live outside the city, most of the territory they cover is outside the city.

And one of the problems Philly faces is not having enough jobs in the city itself. Having people who live outside teh city come here to work, and pay our taxes, is a good thing.

Plus that 30% who DO live in the city make up the majority of the union work force working in the city. Most of that 70% who live outside the city work at jobs outside the city.

Leaving the racial issue aside, I really don't understand that complaint.

__________________
Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that. -George Carlin

They aren't scabs..they just aren't the white unions...

__________________
"And Lord, I pray that you would guard your own reputation, because they're going to think that their god is bigger than you, if that happens. So I pray that you will step forward and honor your own name with all that happens between now and Election Day."--Rev. Arnold Conrad

That's another one that cracks me up. I walk past the construction for the condos behind the Ritz every day. I good portion of the workers are black, wearing union shirts.

__________________
Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that. -George Carlin

What ever happened to the competative bidding? Hell...I don't care where they live.

Stupid post. There is competitive bidding. Contractors from outside the city can bid on the job. The irony is that once they get the job with the lowest bid the idiots on city council then complain that the jobs are going to out of town contractors.

Why is it that the unions cannot provide their demographic information?

Hmmm...kickbacks...political influence...corruption...yeah your right. It was stupid of me to think that those things shouldn't be happening with our tax money.