Protesters say city undercuts jobs, pay
A group of about 100 service workers representing different sectors of organized labor were rebuffed yesterday when they tried to enter Mayor Luke Ravenstahl's office to talk about his development policies and fair wages.
Their efforts fruitless again as Mr. Ravenstahl was not available to meet with them.
Marcy Demitras, an employee at the Omni William Penn Hotel, Downtown who's also with the Pennsylvania Joint Board of Workers United, addresses City Council yesterday. Ms. Demitras was part of a group of about 100 service workers who wanted to speak with Mayor Luke Ravenstahl about his development policies, but instead they met with council members to discuss their opposition to the city's subsidy of developers who offer low-paying jobs. City Council President Doug Shields told the protesters: "We, as a council, will be responsive."
A group of about 100 service workers representing different sectors of organized labor were rebuffed yesterday when they tried to enter Mayor Luke Ravenstahl's office to talk about his development policies and fair wages.
Marcy Demitras, an employee at the Omni William Penn Hotel, Downtown who's also with the Pennsylvania Joint Board of Workers United, addresses City Council yesterday. Ms. Demitras was part of a group of about 100 service workers who wanted to speak with Mayor Luke Ravenstahl about his development policies, but instead they met with council members to discuss their opposition to the city's subsidy of developers who offer low-paying jobs. City Council President Doug Shields told the protesters: "We, as a council, will be responsive."
Their efforts fruitless again as Mr. Ravenstahl was not available to meet with them.
Some of the protesters said security officials locked the doors to the mayor's fifth-floor office yesterday morning and then chained the doors to prevent them from getting inside.
After a second attempt to meet with administration officials was rebuffed yesterday, the group met with several members of City Council.
The mayor's development policies, the workers said, are undercutting their jobs, their wages, and their quality of life.
The Ravenstahl administration, they said, is turning its back on workers like janitors, cooks, clerks and other service-related jobs particularly in the hospitality and health care industries, because it consistently pursues developers who don't use unionized labor, even though they are subsidized by public dollars.
But Chief of Staff Yarone Zober, who briefed reporters in a conference room in the mayor's office, as the union workers waited in a hallway outside, said the Ravenstahl administration has long supported organized labor.
However, he said, the administration also understands that the city cannot successfully compete when "a group of a few" consistently demands community benefits agreements as a pre-requisite for development projects.
"With every dollar created in taxes, those are community benefits," Mr. Zober said, adding that the city is on track to seeing between $5 million and $10 million invested in the North Side this year because of the mayor's efforts.
But the workers said many of the jobs created by the developers the city has recruited in recent years don't pay workers an equitable wage or benefits that they need to support their families.
"Workers here are seeing the city of Pittsburgh give money away to private developers who are undercutting their wages, their benefits and their quality of life," Sam Williamson, a regional director of Pennsylvania Joint Board of Workers United, an affiliate of the Service Employees International Union, told City Council.
In particular, the union protesters, who were members of the National Union of Operating Engineers, Workers United, United Food and Commercial Workers, and the SEIU, said they are opposed to the city's subsidy of developers like Continental Real Estate Co.
"I see the hospitality industry coming back to Pittsburgh," said Ernest Williams, an employee of the Pittsburgh Hilton and a member of SEIU. "Our first goal should be to protest Continental hotel, which is on the North Side," he added.
Continental, a major North Shore developerand the owner of the Del Monte building, is building a hotel on a strip of the North Shore near the soon-to-open Rivers Casino.
In recent weeks, community groups, in particular Northside United, have been protesting the developer's activity, arguing that the neighborhood will not benefit from the new hotel, especially because the company pays its employees on average $8.50 per hour. That wage, the protesters said, is too low for many workers who have families to support.
"All we want is a fair chance and a fair shake," said Joe Balsamo, a union representative of Workers United.
After the protesters were turned away from the mayor's office yesterday morning, they tried again at about 2:30 p.m., but failed to see Mr. Ravenstahl, whom city officials said was not even in the building.
Instead, City Council President Doug Shields invited the group into council chambers where they met with council members and aired their concerns.
"Today I heard concerns not just from union members, but from our community leaders and neighbors. We, as a council, will be responsive. We need to open the process and make sure economic development happens with direct community benefit not just to benefit the few," Mr. Shields said.
Council, he said, will hold a hearing at 10 a.m., on Monday to further discuss the city's economic development policies and come up with a reform proposal within the next three months.
"You have a very sympathetic ear in me," Councilman Bruce Kraus, whose mother is a union steward, told the workers.
The image of the doors to the mayor's office being chained off to city residents, he added, "was a most disturbing image."
Karamagi Rujumba can be reached at krujumba@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1719.
Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09206/986398-53.stm#ixzz0MHOAZ2VD
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