Thursday, January 11, 2007
AP misses the main labor issue
WE’VE MOVED! Democratic Convention Watch is now at http://www.DemocraticConventionWatch.com
In the main AP article today on Denver’s convention win, the AP makes a significant mistake:
In the end, Democratic Party chairman Howard Dean enlisted the help of labor leaders in Washington, including AFL-CIO President John Sweeney and Andy Stern, president of the Service Employees International Union. A compromise was negotiated to staff the Pepsi Center entirely with union labor for the duration of the convention, effectively taking the last major obstacle off the table.
The decision to staff the Pepsi Center with union labor was made a while ago, and was not the major obstacle. The problem was that the head of the union which was to provide that union labor would not sign a no-strike pledge, which is usually a requirement for a convention bid. How did the DNC resolve this? They didn’t. They decided to give Denver the convention anyway, and put off the issue. If for some reason Taylor actually decides to strike, or even threaten one, this whole thing could blow up. I’ll be watching this closely.
Posted by Matt at 10:16 PM 
AP misses the main labor issue2007-01-11T22:16:00-05:00MattDenver bid|labor|Pepsi Center|Site Selection|