Are Philly carpenters, convention center nailing an agreement?

Is there a possible settlement in the nasty dispute between the Pennsylvania Convention Center and the carpenters' union?

"They're talking," said Martin O'Rourke, spokesman for the carpenters, declining to say anything more.

The hint of a possible detente came in the briefest of motions the Convention Center Authority filed Monday in its federal racketeering case against the union and some of its current and former officers, including now-retired union leader Edward J. Coryell and his son. The Authority "with the consent of all Defendants" sought a 30-day stay in the case, filed in May 2015. U.S. District Judge  Nitza I. Quiñones Alejandro agreed to stay the case until Oct. 19.

The Convention Center's suit accused the union of organizing a campaign of vandalism and interference with the convention center's business ever since the union lost its jurisdiction to work in the center in May 2014.

Why anything in that case would need to be postponed raises questions, since nothing has happened in it for months, other than the Northeast Regional Council of Carpenters being added as a defendant. It sought to be named as a defendant because, in February, the northern New Jersey-based council took over the leadership of the Metropolitan Regional Council of Carpenters in Philadelphia, ousting Coryell in the process.

The Convention Center has also put in a request to postpone a hearing in a related Pennsylvania Labor Relations Board case that was set for later this week, Convention Center chief executive John McNichol said. "We'll tell you what we're doing," he said, "but we won't tell you why."