Denver Post: Like 2004, labor woes dog '08 convention

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_5475522

Like 2004, labor woes dog '08 convention
By George Merritt and Chuck Plunkett
Denver Post Staff Writers
Article Launched: 03/20/2007 01:00:00 AM MDT

Denver officials in charge of hosting the 2008 Democratic National Convention may have more in common than they want to with Boston officials, who hosted the event in 2004.

The two groups met Monday in Denver. And like the run-up to the previous convention, labor issues have so far hung over Denver's convention.

Denver won the bid for the 2008 convention despite not having a signed agreement with labor not to strike. A local stagehands union refused to agree not to strike or picket during the convention.

Three months later, the agreement remains unsigned, and if anything, labor groups in the state are less inclined to appease politicians.

Just over a week ago, a dispute with Gov. Bill Ritter led the AFL-CIO to publicly ask about moving the convention out of Denver.

It is a conflict Boston knows well.

A police union there threatened to picket the 2004 convention until a deal was worked out just before the event.

An official with Boston's convention, Stephen Kerrigan, said it was difficult to compare the Boston and Denver situations.

But Hank Sheinkopf, a lawyer and Democratic consultant who represented the Boston Police Patrolman's Association in 2004, said Denver would do well to work out a deal soon.

"Labor has the cards," said Sheinkopf, who helped the police union win a significant pay increase.

If unions disrupt the convention, "It will not look good for the Democratic Party, or the city of Denver, or Colorado. Nobody wins," he said. "Logic would dictate there has to be some kind of compromise."

The prospect of striking union workers picketing the Democrats' national convention is anathema to the party, which benefits from labor's support.

FULL article at link.