City in labor talks today with District Council 47 | Philadelphia Inquirer

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Wednesday, June 24, 2009

City in labor talks today with District Council 47

For just the second time, city negotiators are discussing a new labor deal with AFSCME District Council 47.

The two sides were meeting this morning at the Sheraton in Center City, and while there is no expectation that today's talks will yield significant progress, it is a sign of movement nonetheless.

DC 47's contract expires Tuesday, June 30 - along with the contracts held by District Council 33, the police and the fire fighters' unions.

3:30 P.M. UPDATE: The negotiations ended about 1:30 p.m., according to DC 47 spokesman Bob Bedard. "They met, but virtually nothing was accomplished," he said. "The ball was not moved forward today."

He said the city made an hour-long power point presentation about the bleak economy. The same or a similar presentation was made to District Council 33 in a separate bargaining meeting Monday.

Also, Bedard said, the city was unprepared to talk about health benefits changes, and did not today respond to a DC 47 request to show how the city would save money by implementing certain work-rule changes.

Reached by phone this afternoon, the city's chief negotiator, Shannon Farmer, had no immediate comment.

No new talks have been scheduled.

Click here for Philly.com's politics page.

Posted by Marcia Gelbart @ 12:15 PM Permalink | 6 comments

Comments

Posted 01:25 PM, 06/24/2009

CleanupPhilly

If the press covers the chances of the sales tax hike and pension refi/payment delay passing in Harrisburg more fully, then the unions get a better idea of where they really stand. Thank God for the internet, where I can go and look up other coverage in the state about the progress of Philly's petition, so I have a good idea, I feel, of where it stands. Why would the press here avoid a frank assessment? I don't mean you guys in particular at HICH, I mean your colleagues who'll write about Jon and Kate Plus Hate before they'll cover the chances of the Philly requests passing at the state level.

Posted 01:28 PM, 06/24/2009

CleanupPhilly

Baer's top ten for example I thought would be serious information on a deadly serious topic -- the countdown to what we have to do. Instead I get this glib bit of nothing, even as unions are sitting down with the city to agree on cuts and concessions. This is like getting drunk during a hurricane. People do it, but there are some people in New Orleans and Galveston who shouldn't have.

Posted 01:29 PM, 06/24/2009

kelprod1

Here is the negotiation..."6 million people are unemployed and would love this job. We are no longer going to pay inflated union compensation for essentially unskilled labor- we are going to pay only what the market will bear. Take it or leave it."

Posted 02:00 PM, 06/24/2009

CleanupPhilly

Right, kel. The paper has done a better job of specifying what you can cut out of your wedding budget than it has for the state and city budgets. This directly impacts what reality is at the negotiating table. People have to understand where these budgets are really at, and they don't.