DNC Planners, Unions Sign Convention Pact

Democratic convention planners and labor leaders Monday signed a long-awaited peace accord guaranteeing no strikes or pickets at Staples Center during next week’s convention.

The agreement, which had been sought by Democrats for months, also covers the union hotels where President Clinton and Vice President Al Gore will stay, as well as the headquarters for the Democratic Party and convention planners.

The accord had been held up until contracts were signed covering seven operating engineers and 1,000 concession workers at Staples. All workers at the sports and entertainment center, which opened last year, are covered by union contracts.

The agreement also guarantees that workers who set up and tear down the convention, such as electricians and construction workers, earn union wages and benefits, and in turn will not strike or picket.

“We showed together what can happen when both sides sit down and bargain in good faith, that we can reach an agreement that everyone can be proud of,” said Miguel Contreras, secretary-treasurer of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, at a ceremonial signing on a Staples Center terrace.

The 14-page document, signed by 12 unions, does not preclude labor activists from protesting elsewhere in the city.

There will be plenty of action on the street during the week, and the press briefing unintentionally offered a preview of that. As Lydia Camarillo, who chairs the Democratic National Convention Committee, and Staples Center President Tim Leiweke mingled with union presidents, they were forced to shout over the buzz of television news helicopters that were filming a police action at the nearby Figueroa Hotel. Earlier, protesters had unfurled a giant American flag stamped “Sold” on the hotel walls.

Organized labor, which endorsed Gore and accounts for about one-third of the delegates inside the convention, has officially separated itself from most of the street actions planned for the week. Leaders said they instead plan to be quietly working the corridors of the convention.

Several unions do plan actions during the convention to highlight specific issues, while stressing their support for Gore’s candidacy.

On Tuesday, unions representing about 45,000 Los Angeles County workers and 41,000 teachers at the Los Angeles Unified School District plan marches to highlight their ongoing contract disputes, as well as the growing gap between rich and poor in the region. The county workers will pass directly by Staples on their way to a strike vote at the Grand Olympic Auditorium. Teachers will keep a distance, marching to the district administration offices.

The Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees union will stage a large demonstration outside the non-union Loews Santa Monica Beach Hotel on Sunday night that is expected to draw hundreds of union delegates, led by AFL-CIO President John Sweeney.

The union also plans daily informational pickets and early-morning “wake-up calls,” with protesters banging pots and pans outside the hotel.

On Thursday, about 100 members of the Service Employees International Union will join a coalition of immigrant rights groups on a march through downtown Los Angeles, planned to end at Staples during Gore’s acceptance speech. That march will call for major immigration reform, including a new amnesty for undocumented workers.