Published: September 8, 2009

32BJ Members march for health care reform in the
Labor Day Parade on Columbus Blvd.
Photo: Charles Fox

What a difference a year makes.

During 2008's Labor Day Parade speechifying, Mayor Nutter was greeted with cheers and handshakes.

Yesterday, despite some pats on the back from well-wishers, he faced boos and jeers from hundreds of members of more than a dozen unions gathered in Local 19's parking lot at the Sheet Metal Workers Union Hall in South Philadelphia.

"I don't take it personally," the mayor said. "It's part of what goes with public service. I think it's a very tough time in this country, and people are upset."

If anything, the three-hour rally and parade on Columbus Boulevard felt like a labor movement holding its breath, even as a rainbow of T-shirted workers, led by Teamsters in trucks, headed north to a picnic at Penn's Landing.

Bargaining is going nowhere for thousands of unionized municipal employees in Philadelphia, whose contracts expired June 30. Their negotiations with City Hall have been stymied by the budget impasse in Harrisburg. Meanwhile, Nutter is threatening layoffs of city workers, police, and firefighters.

Teachers, building engineers, and other employees of the Philadelphia School District also are waiting. Their contracts, which ran out Aug. 31, have been extended to Oct. 31.

Because schools rely on the state for part of their funding, "it's going to be hard to reach any agreement" until the budget is finalized, Jerry Jordan, president of the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers, said as he stood in a sea of red-T-shirted colleagues.

The uncertainty, he said, is a distraction for school staff. "They are going into schools and facing the children with this on their minds," Jordan said. "What's going to happen to their futures? It is something that really consumes all the employees."

Transit Workers Union Local 234 held a barbecue yesterday at its union hall on North Second Street. Its contract with SEPTA expired in March, and negotiations have been slow, said Willie Brown, president of the 5,000-member local.

Now, he said, is time to build solidarity in case a strike vote is necessary.

"This is a recession-proof job," he said. "When people can't afford their car payments or their insurance, they still have to get around. They turn to SEPTA."

On Thursday, the state House is scheduled to vote on a bill authorizing a temporary increase in the sales tax in Philadelphia while allowing the city to defer pension payments for two years. Without the relief it would bring, Nutter has said, there would be as many as 3,000 layoffs and deep cuts to basic services such as sanitation and criminal justice.

Both the unions and the mayor backed the original version of the legislation. But the bill up for a vote on Thursday has raised union leaders' ire because it comes with Senate-added amendments that would change how future pension benefits would be paid.

Those changes should be negotiated, not legislated, labor leaders said yesterday. If getting rid of those amendments means the bill has to be scotched, so be it.

"It's time to go back to the negotiating table," said Patrick J. Eiding, president of the Philadelphia Central Council of the AFL-CIO.

Nutter said that he could not control the amendments but that getting the bill passed was a must for Philadelphia.

Collective bargaining might be on hold, but politicking was moving ahead as usual yesterday in advance of the election season, with candidates showing up to greet labor leaders.

Republican Michael Untermeyer and Democrat Seth Williams, both candidates for Philadelphia district attorney, stopped by.

"Union members represent rowhouse Philadelphia," said Williams, who marched in the parade with the Fraternal Order of Police, which has endorsed his bid. "It's important to try to get the support of organized labor."