Monday, April 23, 2007
More talks with labor
WE’VE MOVED! Democratic Convention Watch is now at http://www.DemocraticConventionWatch.com
The Democrats are continuing their discussions with labor. This time it’s Colorado Governor Bill Ritter:
Gov. Bill Ritter met today with AFL-CIO President John Sweeney and promised to work with him to resolve problems with organized labor leading up to the Democratic National Convention next year. Ritter, a Democrat, said he and Sweeney discussed the lack of union workers at area hotels, problems over contracts with stage hands and the temporary use of union labor at the main convention venue, the Pepsi Center.
…
Sweeney said that “a number of labor issues” arise over the staging of a national political convention, “and so, many of our local unions here have issues that they wanted to raise and which they are raising and we will be working on from now until the convention.”
…
Sweeney declined to say what the union would do if agreements aren’t reached on the outstanding issues, including the hiring of union stagehands for the convention and signing a contract with the Hyatt Hotel, the main hotel for delegates.“I really am very optimistic that not just the hotel issue, but that many of these issues that relate directly to the convention, that every effort will be made to resolve them and I’d like to focus on that and not talk about what if,” Sweeney said.
It certainly seems that tensions have cooled after this meeting and the meetings that Dean held last week. There will likely be flare-ups as things move along, but with national figures like Sweeney and Dean now heavily involved, hopefully things will settle down.
Posted by Matt at 9:40 PM 
More talks with labor2007-04-23T21:40:00-04:00Mattlabor|Pepsi Center|