Police plan to broaden convention picketing

Boston's main police union is planning to set up a picket line at the FleetCenter when construction begins for the Democratic National Convention in three weeks, and has applied for 29 additional permits to protest outside of the delegation welcome parties scheduled for the night before the convention begins in late July.

The Boston Police Patrolmen's Association will be asking convention contractors not to cross their picket line, said Thomas J. Nee, cq the union's president. In addition, leaders of the police union next week will begin sending letters to all 6,000 convention delegates and alternates, informing them of Boston's labor woes, and asking them not to attend the parties.

``Every venue they've identified, we will have picket lines there,'' Nee said. ``We are letting delegates know we're going into our third year without a contract, and the frustration is spilling over. The values of the Democratic Party are not being adhered to in the city of Boston.''

*The moves are not likely to disrupt convention preparations. Trade union leaders say they would not honor a patrolmen's association picket line and plan to begin work at the FleetCenter by the scheduled June 8 start date. Most delegates from around the country, meanwhile, will probably not boycott convention activities because of a local labor dispute, according to national Democratic officials.

Still, the protest plans put added pressure on Mayor Thomas M. Menino to quickly settle contracts with city workers as the convention approaches. And protests at the FleetCenter starting in early June mean the mayor has even less time to avoid embarrassing displays of labor unrest in his city. The lack of labor agreements has slowed convention planning on several fronts. Several large international public-employee unions are declining to help Menino close a $4.6 million fund-raising gap, even as construction and security costs threaten to escalate significantly.

In addition, the Greater Boston Labor Council -- an umbrella group representing public- and private-sector unions -- is refusing to sign a "project labor agreement," a pact with convention organizers pledging labor peace during the convention. With city unions still negotiating contracts, the council has withheld its endorsement as leverage.

In an attempt to get around the council's stand, Menino approached trade unions separately and is close to signing a no-strike agreement with the unions that would begin work at the FleetCenter in June. Still, an agreement with the council, which would be sanctioned by all the city's unions, is seen as an important symbolic step in projecting labor harmony by the time the convention starts. Menino aides yesterday criticized the patrolmen's association, saying that the union's leaders seem more interested in posturing than in getting a deal done.

"Mayor Menino's message remains the same: Sit at the table, get a deal done," said Seth Gitell, Menino's press secretary.

Dennis A. DiMarzio, the city's chief operating officer, said the mayor's team last month offered to hold formal talks with the union on nine separate dates, but union leaders rejected all but one of them.

Nee denied that, however, and said his union is eager to have direct talks with the city, even though negotiations are now being conducted under the guidance of the state Joint Labor-Management Committee.

"If he called me right now, my bargaining team will be anywhere he wants to meet within 30 minutes, and we'll stay there as long as it takes to get a deal," Nee said.

Thirty of Boston's 32 labor unions are working without contracts, and many of the unions -- including the police patrolmen's association -- haven't had contracts in place since July 2002.

Two weeks ago, Menino announced having reached a tentative agreement with one of the larger unions, an affiliate of the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees, but final language still hasn't been agreed upon in that pact.

If trade unions reach their own no-strike agreement, the members of those unions would be required to fulfill their commitments, regardless of any protests staged by public-employee unions, said Michael Monahan, business manager for Local 103 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers.

"Per the agreement, we can't honor any picket lines," said Monahan, who said he expects about 100 members of his union to work on convention preparations. "I sympathize with [the police union's] position, but when the PLA is signed by the building trades, we are obligated to go to work and perform the jobs that we were hired to do."

Leaders of the Greater Boston Labor Council distanced themselves from the police union's protest plans at the convention work site.

Richard M. Rogers, the council's secretary treasurer, said he could not support a job action that would affect union construction workers.

"The Greater Boston Labor Council's role is to promote solidarity, not strife, among its affiliates," Rogers said. "The labor council's objective is to push for settlements in advance of the construction project."

But Nee said the police union would continue to call on workers in private-sector unions to respect a picket line set up by public unions, even if they sign a project labor agreement. Since strikes by public employees are illegal in Massachusetts, such demonstrations are the only way they can draw attention to their cause, he said.

"A line is a line, and we expect that they will not go in there," Nee said. "Life is about choices."

He said the police union will make sure that diehard Democrats in town for the convention know about the city's labor problems.

So far, about 1,200 police officers from at least 18 departments around the country stand ready to come to Boston for the convention, and they will be protesting outside the hotels where their local delegations will stay, Nee said.

Rick Klein can be reached at rklein@globe.com.