Kerry may heed pickets, skip talk to mayors

MASSILLON, Ohio -- Under pressure from firefighters, police, and other unions whose support is critical to his White House bid, Senator John F. Kerry yesterday was considering canceling a Monday speech in Boston before the US Conference of Mayors unless a last-minute compromise allows him to avoid crossing a picket line of workers battling for a new contract from the city, Kerry advisers said.

The presumptive Democratic nominee had committed to deliver the speech at the urging of conference host Thomas M. Menino and was expecting that the labor dispute would be settled by this point. Kerry has quietly distanced himself from Boston's labor wars all spring while proclaiming his solidarity with striking workers in states like Ohio and California that are more crucial for victory on Election Day than Massachusetts.

Caught between hundreds of mayors whose political machines will be vital in November and the union members who will be foot soldiers in his voter-turnout operations, Kerry and his advisers are banking on a breakthrough this weekend that would clear the way for him to speak.

The Massachusetts senator came under pressure yesterday from Menino to keep his commitment. Between events at the Conference of Mayors, Menino said he and his colleagues expect Kerry to speak as scheduled.

Unions, however, are urging him to stay away. Earlier this week, the president of the International Association of Fire Fighters, Harold Schaitberger, called Kerry and Senator Edward M. Kennedy and told him not to cross the picket line, Jeff Zack, a spokesman for the international union, said yesterday.

Schaitberger "told them both that there's a picket line there, and he knows they needed to know that because they don't cross picket lines," Zack said. "He's fully confident that they wouldn't cross it."

Schaitberger is a cochair of Kerry's presidential campaign. The firefighters union endorsed Kerry early in his quest for the Democratic nomination. At nearly every campaign event, Kerry points out firefighters in their gold-and-black T-shirts that say "Kerry for President" and asks the audience to applaud for them.

One Kerry adviser described the conflict over the senator's Monday appearance as a "lose-lose situation."

Union workers nationwide are at odds with their mayors over pay, health care, seniority, and other contract benefits. If Kerry were to appear at the conference, he would anger the unions. Once inside, however, political pressure could prompt him to champion labor rights before the mayors, angering them.

Members of the Boston Police Patrolmen's Association and their allies have pledged to picket the July 26-29 Democratic National Convention if the contract dispute is unsettled.

"We're not going to make a commitment either way on the speech right now -- there's too much at stake to do that yet," a senior Kerry adviser said yesterday on condition of anonymity. "This is larger than this particular event -- we're looking toward the whole convention week and we would like this whole thing to be defused. There are meetings and talks going on this weekend between the city and the union, and we are being hopeful at this point."

The labor dispute is so volatile that on Thursday the state's senior senator, Edward M. Kennedy, abruptly canceled plans to speak to the conference, though Kennedy's spokesman cited a scheduling conflict as the reason. Schaitberger had also appealed to Kennedy not to cross union lines.

Menino, however, said yesterday that the union protest outside the mayors' conference is not technically a picket line because the police and fire unions aren't on strike, suggesting that Kerry should not feel beholden to abide by labor demands to stay away.

Menino aides also pointed to strategic moves by Kerry to appeal to political moderates, conservatives, and swing voters; refusing to cross what technically isn't a picket line, they say, would show that he is in the pocket of labor unions.

Speaking at the Sheraton Boston, where the mayors' conference is taking place, Menino noted that Kerry had a conference call on Thursday with top Democratic mayors where he outlined some of the points he plans to touch on in his speech, indicating that he plans to attend.

"No information has come to me that he won't be here," Menino said. "Yesterday morning he had a conference call with a dozen mayors on issues that affect urban America, so I expect him to be here."

President Bush's reelection campaign, meanwhile, was watching developments with interest. The prospect of Kerry crossing the picket line would provide more grist for GOP campaign attacks that Kerry takes politically convenient stands.

"It's another example of John Kerry saying one thing to one group and another thing to other groups," Bush campaign spokesman Steve Schmidt said.

As Kerry campaigned in this economically depressed city yesterday -- the first time a Democratic candidate has visited Ohio's Stark County since Jimmy Carter in 1976 -- the delicacy of his labor conundrum back home in Boston was cast into sharp relief. At a town hall forum with about 400 people, and later at a rally with some 3,000, Kerry offered a full-throated defense of union workers' rights and pledged to fight by their side for better pay and health care benefits. He nodded sympathetically and embraced some union members as they told stories at the town hall about facing layoffs. Kerry has also visited picket lines in California and met with striking workers.

Kerry told the crowd at Perry High School here: "I think it's time we had a president who understood that the reason that millions of Americans across this country can get up every day and go to work and they've got a pension and they've got health care and they've got a good wage and they've got a safe workplace, and they have all of these benefits . . . is because, for a long time in this country, people like you were willing to stand up and go out and fight for those rights to organize."

Menino's press office distributed information packets to reporters at the mayors' event that make the case that the patrolmen's association isn't serious about settling contracts. The mayor also noted that the police and firefighters' pickets hadn't kept any mayors away from the conference.

"The police have been out there, trying to send a message, but I say we'll get it cleared up as soon as we get to the table," Menino said.

The senior Kerry adviser said he was putting stock in a meeting, planned for today, between city representatives and labor negotiators to continue contract talks.

"People are talking to the unions, and the unions are talking, and they all know that we want a decision made by Sunday night," the adviser said.

Following his visit to Ohio, Kerry flew to New York, where he attended a fund-raiser given by gay and lesbian activists that raised $1.8 million for himself and the Democratic National Committee.

Kerry's former rival, Howard Dean, spoke before the senator, telling the crowd: "The difference between John Kerry and I, or John Edwards and Dick Gephardt and so forth, is pretty small relative to the enormous gulf between the Democrats and the right wing of the Republican Party. This is the most extreme president we've seen in my lifetime, probably the least competent president we've seen since Warren Harding."

Healy reported from Ohio, Klein from Boston. Patrick Healy can be reached at phealy@globe.com. Rick Klein can be reached at rklein@globe.com.