Coryell's ouster heralds change for Philadelphia labor

Like him or not, it will be different in Philadelphia without Edward Coryell, 70, at the helm of one of the city's largest labor unions: the Metropolitan Regional Council of Carpenters, with 17,000 members, an annual budget of $33.2 million, and assets of $134.1 million.

And, like the carpenters' union or not, it will be different in Philadelphia as the union's locus of leadership moves from its headquarters at 18th and Spring Garden Streets.

On Wednesday, Coryell was ousted from his post, and the union locals in his council were divided among councils in Edison, N.J.; Pittsburgh; and Framingham, Mass., with most moving to Edison.

"It's like what happens when a corporate headquarters closes, and they move somewhere else," said Peter Cappelli, a management professor at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

"They say it doesn't matter, because the customers are still here, but the personal contacts with the people in charge are no longer possible," Cappelli said.

Relationships forged at the bargaining table may be disrupted. But the change may provide an opportunity to heal old wounds and repair resentments.

"It'll be a new day with building trades," said Patrick Eiding, head of the Philadelphia AFL-CIO.

"Nothing can be done without the carpenters being involved," he said.

And they haven't been.

Coryell had not been a member recently of the Philadelphia Building Trades Council, an umbrella organization, nor had he participated as a leader within the Philadelphia AFL-CIO.

Coryell's tendency to go his own way has been a sore point here.

Electricians' union leader John "Johnny Doc" Dougherty, who has been a Coryell rival, is hoping for a change.

Besides leading the influential International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 98, Dougherty now heads the building trades council.

Dougherty said he spent Thursday calling contractors and developers, "letting them know there's continuity in the industry" amid hopes the carpenters' union will become "partners in the trades."

"Our job is to create work opportunities for the members," he said.

At the bargaining table, Coryell is known as a "tough, but fair, negotiator," said contractor Stephen Pouppirt, president of Clemens Construction Co. in Philadelphia.

Coryell also is a known quantity.

"Coryell has been a fixture in this town" since he became a leader 35 years ago, said lawyer John DiNome, a Reed Smith L.L.P. partner who has negotiated many union contracts on the management side. "Many union relationships span decades."

Business give-and-take is normal, but in labor, each side is aware that when the contract is signed, the deal isn't over as it might be when someone bargains to buy a car, gets the title, and drives away.

Both sides will soon return to the table, and in between, DiNome said, there will be skirmishes. Over time, both sides learn the other's pressures, knowing when to push and when to back off.

"There will be some disarray or confusion on side deals, extensions, all those unwritten things" with Coryell's departure, DiNome said. "It will sort out as relationships develop."

If Coryell had groomed a successor and then retired, adjustments would have been required.

But Wednesday's shift of power is more dramatic, with the entire carpenters' union leadership moved out of the city.

Coryell's son, Edward Jr., number two in the union, will report to a new boss in Edison.

Will distance matter?

"It's human nature. People want to have that touch," Eiding said. "A carpenter living in Berwyn - now his home office is in Edison. That's more than a 10-minute ride."

Wharton's Cappelli said it will be hard for local charities to ask union leaders 70 miles away to build houses for Habitat for Humanity, or set up the Hero Scholarship Thrill Show for families of fallen police officers and firefighters at the Wells Fargo Center.

It's not clear why United Brotherhood of Carpenters president Douglas McCarron chose to close the Philadelphia council rather than fold the smaller Pittsburgh council into it.

McCarron didn't return a call for comment. But he has been consolidating regional councils, saying it increasing each council's clout in the market.

"Unions can gain some resources and efficiencies" by merging, said Philip Dine, author of the 2013 book State of the Unions.

"But the downside is a lessening of local ties and the input of local workers. That can get lost," he said.

In 2005, for example, the janitors' union in Philadelphia merged with New York's union, according to two people who were local union officials then.

Philadelphia's union, financially strapped with 3,800 members, joined Service Employees International Union Local 32BJ, which now has 160,000 members along the East Coast, including 60,000 in New York City.

The merger brought resources and bargaining clout, particularly when negotiating with employers in multiple cities, said one former official, who has left the union and has a job that forbids him to talk to the media.

But the New York leadership "wasn't as concerned about Philadelphia," he said. "So it's a trade-off. You lose some local autonomy and focus, but you gain some resources for some other very important things."

jvonbergen@phillynews.com

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