DAVID M WARREN / Inquirer Staff Photographer
Thomas Paine Cronin, the outgoing president of District Council 47, with some of the strike posters from his long union career. He leaves his position tomorrow after 27 years.
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Labor leader will miss slugging it out with mayors
"When the mayor is helpful to the people I represent, I'll work with him. When he isn't, I'll fight him. . . . If a union's worth its salt, there should be conflict in contract negotiations. Otherwise, the union's caving."
Contact staff writer Gail Shister at 215-854-2224 or gshister@phillynews.com. Read her recent work at http://go.philly.com/gailshister.
Dealing with Street "has always been hard," Cronin says, because of their history. During particularly contentious negotiations in the early '90s, when Street was City Council president, the two engaged in verbal warfare.
Street referred to the union leader as "Thomas Pain." He turned his chair around when Cronin entered the negotiating room.
"He wouldn't meet with me. I was furious," Cronin says. "I threatened to take a chain saw and go through the door." Street could not be reached for comment.
"Tom's job was to protect his union, not kiss the butt of the City Council president. John didn't like that," author Bissinger says.
Under Street's administration, however, Phil Goldsmith, his managing director from 2003 to '05, "never got angry at Tom. I never sensed anything personal. The good ones are like that."
Cronin says his worst relationship with a sitting mayor was with Rendell "because of what I perceived as total disrespect for city workers. . . . He got elected on our backs." Rendell could not be reached for comment.
The next mayor (presumedly Democrat Michael Nutter) will have the pleasure of negotiating new four-year deals for the four city unions, beginning in January. The current contract expires June 30.
The dance rarely changes: The unions want benefits; the city wants givebacks. Voices are raised; insults are traded. Both sides are unhappy. The curtain closes.
The burning question is this: How did Cronin manage to hold onto the reins for almost three decades amid all that drama?
"Good drugs," he says with a laugh. "And the ability to take a punch."
Contact staff writer Gail Shister at 215-854-2224 or gshister@phillynews.com. Read her recent work at http://go.philly.com/gailshister.
