Carpenters, Teamsters protest 'unfair lockout' at Pa. Convention Center

Hundreds of workers staged a rally Saturday morning to protest what they claim is an "unfair lockout" barring members of two unions from working at the Pennsylvania Convention Center.

Between 300 and 400 protesters, many of them members of the Metropolitan Regional Council of Carpenters Local 8 and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters Local 107, gathered near Broad and Race streets around 11 a.m.

Carrying signs that read "End the lockout" and "We signed, let us work," they embarked on a march circling the Convention Center.

The two unions have been excluded from working at the center since May 5, when they missed a management-set deadline to sign a new, 10-year Customer Satisfaction Agreement.

Leaders of the Carpenters and Teamsters unions maintain they were misled about the deadline, an allegation Convention Center management has adamantly denied.

Though the Carpenters and Teamsters signed the agreement several days later, they were told their work had already been reapportioned among the four other unions that work in the center and signed the agreement by May 5.

The two unions plan to protest until their workers are let back inside the Convention Center, said Carpenters' spokesman Martin O'Rourke.