Labor beef threatens Denver convention bid

Alan Gathright and Stuart Steers, Rocky Mountain News

Published December 19, 2006 at midnight

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Top state political leaders, including Gov.-elect Bill Ritter, U.S. Sen. Ken Salazar and Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper, are scrambling to iron out a labor dispute with the Pepsi Center before it sinks Denver’s bid for the 2008 Democratic National Convention.

The hang up is that the local stagehands' union is among labor groups that need to sign a no-strike agreement during the convention before the party of labor will consider Denver’s bid.

With Democratic Party Chairman Howard Dean expected to decided this week whether Denver or New York City — a labor stronghold — wins the convention, stagehands' union leaders want to use the must-have agreement to force the privately owned Pepsi Center to employ union contractors. The arena has already agreed to use union workers during the August 2008 presidential nominating bash.

Colorado Democratic powerbrokers are pressuring Jim Taylor, president of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees Local No. 7, to sign the agreement to avoid scuttling a convention that will bring 35,000 visitors, millions of dollars in revenue and cast an international spotlight on Denver and the state.

"Jim mentioned to me that he spoke yesterday with Ken Salazar and that he was planning to speak this morning with Bill Ritter," said Jack Finlaw, Denver's director of theaters and arenas. "There is a united front among the state’s Democrats to get labor onboard for this important convention."

"I spent about a half hour with Jim Taylor...this morning, and I think Jim understands that this is an extraordinarily important issue for the city of Denver," said Taylor, adding that the mayor’s other top aides are lobbying regional labor leaders. Taylor said he stressed with Taylor that for decades the stagehands union has had a strong and "very generous" relationship with the city stagehands' union, whose members work city venues like the Colorado Convention Center, the Denver Center for the Performing and Red Rocks.

"They know that they’ve certainly done a great job and we’ve had a great relationship and that this is an important decision that he needs to make in support of the city’s efforts to land this convention," Finlaw said.

Taylor couldn’t be reached this morning, but metro labor leaders warned that Denver city and business leaders shouldn’t ignore the key role unions contributions have played in electing Democrats like Ritter and turning Colorado into a "blue" state.

"The Pepsi Center has been unwilling to engage in a conversation with us," said Leslie Moody, president of the Denver Area Labor Federation. "The way this is being spun is we're holding this up. This is an issue the Pepsi Center could resolve."

Moody said unionizing the arena was a legitimate issue to raise with a Democratic convention.

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