Williams too close to union for city's sake

IT'S NIGHT VS. DAY at the Pennsylvania Convention Center.

After years of losing business and getting slammed for its union problems, it is basking in rave reviews.

Bookings are up. The cost of holding conventions is down. Instead of exhibitor complaints about sullen and expensive union workers, they are praising the men and women in the four unions that work inside the $1.3 billion center.

Who would want to change the favorable arc of this narrative? Ed Coryell Sr., head of the regional Carpenters Union, for one. Mayoral candidate Anthony Hardy Williams for another.

Coryell has reason to be upset. Last year, his union - which had worked in the center since it opened - was shown the door after it staged a brief wildcat strike and missed the deadline for agreeing to a new customer-service agreement. That agreement serves as the contract governing the unions working in the building. The Teamsters were ejected for the same reason.

It was a brave step for the center's board to take, but it was born of desperation. Despite a $780 million expansion completed in 2011, bookings were down - and getting worse each year. Its reputation in the small world of convention bookers was headed to zero. At root were persistent complaints about "labor hassles" in the building - though most were traceable to one union.

As one source familiar with the center's operations put it at the time: "We don't have a labor union problem. We have a Carpenters Union problem."

The validity of that observation can be seen in how the image of the center and the experience of exhibitors has improved now that the carpenters are gone. As I said, night vs. day.

Which is why my eyes grew wide the other week when I read comments from Williams. The Carpenters Union, as part of its agitation over its ouster, has waged a publicity campaign against the center, including urging Democrats to stay away during next year's Democratic National Convention, where the center is sure to be the site of many convention-related activities.

The other week, Williams was campaigning outside the Reading Terminal Market when he was approached by Brian Hickey, of WHYY's NinetyNine blog, and asked about the carpenters. Hickey asked: Do these guys have a legitimate beef?

Williams replied: "What I'd like to do is offer a way to provide peace . . . " and mentioned how important the DNC is to the city. And how he hoped as mayor to resolve the differences. After a few more verbal pirouettes, Williams moved on to other topics.

It should be mentioned that Williams has been endorsed by Coryell and the Carpenters Union, which held a rally for him last week at union headquarters. The 8,000-member trade union is a big giver to politicians. It has spent $4.2 million in contributions in the past five years, including $260,000 to Gov. Tom Corbett in 2010 and $250,000 to Gov. Wolf after he won last year's primary.

In 2013, Coryell was named as a member of the 15-member convention center board as an appointee of the Senate Democratic leader, Jay Costa of Pittsburgh. Harrisburg sources said that Costa was acting at the behest of two Philadelphia senators, Williams and Sen. Vincent Hughes.

This put the board in the awkward position of having, as one of the governing members, the leader of the union it was negotiating with over new work rules. I suggested at the time that Coryell should get a chair with rollers, so he could move quickly from one side of the table to the other.

Was Williams now proposing to help his political ally Coryell once again? I posed that question to the Williams campaign. Barbara Grant, his media person, emailed the candidate's reply:

"My priority as mayor will be to put the best of Philadelphia on display when we're on the world stage in 2016. To me, part of that includes finding a solution to any lingering disagreements at the Convention Center . . . "

And then he did a few more verbal pirouettes. As Williams has pointed out, he also has the endorsement of the Laborers Union, which has members working inside the center.

The carpenters have already given the Williams campaign the maximum donation allowed under city law ($11,500). In fact, the Ethics Board, which oversees enforcement of the law, recently fined the Williams campaign for taking more than it was entitled from the union.

To oversimplify, there are two kinds of givers to political campaigns: believers and investors. Believers feel an ideological or personal tug toward a candidate. Investors often couldn't care less about ideology. They want a rate of return on their contributions. Many political-action committees - including the carpenters - are investors.

Williams, being a conventional politician, may simply be making the soothing noises this particular investor wants to hear. But he should be careful. The man who campaigns as the candidate of "One Philadelphia" should know that letting the carpenters back into that building could endanger its future. An empty or underused center will have a direct and negative impact on the 60,000-plus workers in the hospitality sector in the city - the waiters, hotel clerks, maids, taxi drivers and others who depend on a robust center.

These people make far less a year than the average $65,000 annual salary made by a member of a union that is mostly male (99 percent) and mostly white (79 percent) and whose members mostly live outside the city (75 percent).

Someone should remind Williams his pledge is to work for "One Philadelphia," not one union.

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