Union Unrest Continues at Convention Center

Expect more labor protests at the Pennsylvania Convention Center today. “Tensions are mounting at the Pennsylvania Convention Center, where protesting union carpenters – excluded, unfairly they say, from working at the complex – plan another big protest Friday morning,” the Inquirer reports this morning.

The story remains the same as it’s been for much of the summer: The Carpenters are mad that they weren’t included in a contract with other major unions to do work, under new work rules, at the convention center. Center officials say the union had a deadline to sign the contract and didn’t meet it — so story over. The remaining unions are working to promote the new arrangement at the center in hopes of bringing more business to Philadelphia, but feelings remain quite sore, at least among the Carpenters.

Martin O’Rourke, a spokesman for the Carpenters, said this week his workers should be allowed back at the center. “Why continue with this disruption and protest?” he asked. “It’s not good for business in Philadelphia.”