Caught in a labor dispute involving his hometown mayor and the city’s police and firefighter’s unions, John Kerry on Sunday sided with the unions.
After a 48-hour, cross-country trip, Kerry flew home to Boston on Saturday to rest up before returning to the campaign trail Monday morning with a speech here to the U.S. Conference of Mayors.
But members of the city’s largest police union, who have been working without a contract for two years, along with the firefighters, who are in contract talks, have been picketing Mayor Thomas Menino, the host of the conference, wherever he goes. And they were set to do so Monday at the hotel where Kerry, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, was scheduled to speak.
With each side hoping to press Kerry to embarrass the other, Kerry’s schedule remained up in the air for more than 24 hours as he debated whether to antagonize a crucial Democratic ally or a union local and his allies in organized labor, a core Democratic constituency.
By Sunday night, despite what one participant described as “tedious” efforts to broker a solution, Kerry’s aides gave up hope that a deal could be reached to get the unions to suspend their picketing long enough for Kerry to attend the conference without having to cross the line.
“Sen. Kerry will not cross a picket line,” said Michael Meehan, a Kerry spokesman, announcing the senator’s cancellation of his speech. “We know that people on both sides have been working in good faith to resolve this situation, and we hope that they will redouble their efforts to find a resolution to this situation.”
The Boston Police Patrolmen’s Association is asking for a raise of about 17 percent over four years. Menino has offered 11.9 percent. Officials including Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) and Terry McAuliffe, the Democratic national chairman, have failed to push the two sides to a resolution.
Menino, a Democrat, is a pivotal Kerry ally leading up to the party’s national convention in Boston on July 26-29. The police union has endorsed Kerry in past races, although it also endorsed George H.W. Bush in 1988 over Massachusetts Gov. Michael Dukakis.
Earlier this month, picketing police and firefighters delayed the start of construction of the Democrats’ convention hall inside FleetCenter for three days. The police union has threatened to do the same at the convention if an agreement is not reached. Kerry’s aides would not say what he would do in that case.
James Barry, the legislative agent for the 1,400-member police union, noted that Kennedy also canceled plans to speak at the conference Monday, citing a last-minute scheduling conflict.
He said Kerry’s absence Monday would send a message “that we’ve got some serious problems here in Boston and Mayor Menino is in total denial.”
“John Kerry is really a man who understands that police and fire cannot, will not, strike,” Barry said. “The only thing that we can do is protest.”
Barry said the union hoped to reach an agreement by the convention, but would otherwise protest all events at which Menino is host.
He did not say whether the union would try to force Kerry to cross a picket line to attend the convention.
“If John Kerry respects our picket line tomorrow, I think we respect John Kerry,” Barry said.
Menino, by contrast, pressed Kerry to cross the picket line, arguing, among other things, that it is an “informational”` one as the officers are not on strike.
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