White House won't cross picket line for event

[IDemo]

Source: Associated Press

updated 3:00 p.m. MT, Fri., June 5, 2009

WASHINGTON - Steering clear of a messy labor dispute, the White House on Friday said Vice President Joe Biden and other members of President Barack Obama's Cabinet have scrapped plans to attend a national mayors' conference in Rhode Island rather than cross a picket line of local firefighters.

In a statement to The Associated Press, presidential spokesman Robert Gibbs said the Obama administration will redouble its efforts to work with the nation's mayors in other ways. That includes a fresh invitation for the mayors to come to the White House.

But for now, the list of premier guests at the U.S. Conference of Mayors in Providence, R.I., next week just got a lot shorter.

Even as the White House was announcing its decision, the mayoral group's Web site promoted that its confirmed guests included Biden, senior Obama adviser Valerie Jarrett, Attorney General Eric Holder, Commerce Secretary Gary Locke, Labor Secretary Hilda Solis and other administration officials.

Read more: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31129424/