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DNC planners, labor unions find ways of making it work

By Joanne Kelley, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published July 28, 2008 at 12:05 a.m.
Updated July 28, 2008 at 10:12 a.m.

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Scott Widney of Precision Industrial Contractors wipes sweat from his brow Friday as he and others erect large tents outside the Pepsi Center. The tents will be used by various media during next month's Democratic National Convention. Union workers have been given a big role in the event at the mostly nonunion Pepsi Center.

Photo by Matt Mcclain / The Rocky

Scott Widney of Precision Industrial Contractors wipes sweat from his brow Friday as he and others erect large tents outside the Pepsi Center. The tents will be used by various media during next month's Democratic National Convention. Union workers have been given a big role in the event at the mostly nonunion Pepsi Center.

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Democratic National Convention organizers and local unions have worked out at least a temporary way to give organized labor a much bigger role at the mostly nonunion Pepsi Center.

The various contracts and agreements eliminate the threat of protests and picketing that could have disrupted the Democrats’ convention in Denver.

“Those issues got resolved, and we’re proceeding forward,” said Mike Cerbo, executive director of the Colorado AFL-CIO. “We’re looking at the convention to be a model for labor-management relations.”

It’s a big change from last year when a brouhaha erupted after organized labor’s favored political party decided on the Pepsi Center for its biggest event — one that is typically held at a heavily unionized venue. An estimated one-third of DNC delegates belong to unions.

Exacerbating matters early on: The local host committee for the 2008 DNC failed to include a labor representative when it first announced its member list.

Eventually DNC organizers set up a labor relations subcommittee to repair relations and work out a way to involve unions.

Parties to the Pepsi Center’s construction makeover — Turner Construction and various building trade unions — signed an agreement just before work began earlier this month. Other labor organizations are working with the DNC’s exhibition services company to supply union members who will do everything from freight hauling to decorating and display work.

While such arrangements are common during political conventions, they take on added significance given the early controversy that surrounded Denver’s selection for the 2008 event.

Another thorny issue got resolved when workers at Denver’s Hyatt Regency signed a labor contract and gave the city its first unionized hotel.

The DNC labor relations group continues to discuss issues raised by the recent decision to move Sen. Barack Obama’s acceptance speech to Invesco Field at Mile High.

“We have an ongoing dialogue with the local labor council and the labor community as a whole, and they are participating fully in all of our projects and planning for the entire convention,” said DNCC spokeswoman Natalie Wyeth.

The privately held Pepsi Center arena currently has about 200 union workers at the Aramark concessions on its premises. They are represented by UniteHere, the same union that recently organized the Hyatt workers.

But there was still staunch opposition to the Pepsi Center from groups such as the local stagehands union, which normally has no dealings with the arena. In the end, it signed a pact to handle decorating, displays and other specialized tasks such as aerial rigging.

Some media outlets had complained to the DNCC about the high quotes they were getting from contractors for pulling communications cables into the venue. The DNCC’s Wyeth said the committee addressed those cost issues by allowing organizations to “pull their own cable” as long as they contract directly with union employees or use their own unionized workers.

Organized workers at Pepsi Center

The primarily nonunion Pepsi Center will have several unions performing work there before and during the Democratic National Convention, including:

* IATSE Local 7: The Denver Theatrical Stage Employees Union will handle decorating, display and rigging work, and other tasks it typically performs under contract with the Colorado Convention Center.

* Teamsters Local 17: A Teamsters affiliate will transport some of the heavier freight (requiring forklifts, for instance) to and from the loading docks.

* International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers: Members will be handling some of the wiring and other work.

* Construction Building and Construction Trades Council: Carpenters under this umbrella group will provide labor for contractors and subcontractors involved with transforming the Pepsi Center.

* UniteHere: This union already had a presence, with about 200 members who work at the Aramark concessions throughout the complex.

kelleyj@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-5068

Comments

  • July 28, 2008

    8:22 a.m.

    Suggest removal

    FlyfishDude52 writes:

    What? No one touching this one? Whassa matta? Got Hick fever? hahaha

  • July 28, 2008

    1:28 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    P_Denver writes:

    OK: I'll take a stab at this ...

    First of all, I'm not anti-union. My company's 40+ plants are half union, so we have over 5,000 organized employees. In general, they do really good work. No issues -- never had a strike.

    However, I do look for "fair" in dealings, and this one smacks of leaning way toward the union side.

    Let's see ... according to the story, about 1/3 of the attendees are from unions. The Pepsi Center itself is non-union, as are most workers in the country. However, the DNC's agreements basically hold everyone attending hostage to unions. They can't even pull their own cables -- not Pepsi Center cables, their own -- without using a union contractor. I think that's going over the line.

    It seems like 1/3 of the workforce is holding the other 2/3 for ransom.

    Good union leadership negotiates in good faith for the long-term benefit of the organization. It looks like, in this case, no "long term benefit" could be defined, so the union went for it all -- and got it.

  • August 6, 2008

    5:13 a.m.

    Suggest removal

    lidosis writes:

    Yeah too bad they always leave out how the union is forcing local people out of work. If before the convention the Pepsi center was mostly non-union, and now its all union for the convention. The article didn't mention everyone joining the union, because they didn't, they just got pushed out. Dang union bullies.