Menino to fight pickets in court (Boston Labor Dispute At Convention Site)

[Justice]

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2004/06/10/menino_to_fight_pickets_in_court/

"Lawyers for Mayor Thomas M. Menino are filing a federal court challenge against FleetCenter protesters today to force them to make way for delivery trucks and construction workers as Democratic National Convention organizers face the prospect of a third day of construction delays....

Accusing the Boston Police Patrolmen's Association of violating an agreement reached last week in federal court, city lawyers will return to court this morning to ask US District Court Judge Joseph Tauro to order pickets to allow individuals and vehicles through, under penalty of arrest.

"The expectation was that it was going to be an informational leafleting, and that there would be absolutely clear and unobstructed . . . passage of construction vehicles onto the construction site," said Merita Hopkins, Boston's corporation counsel, at a City Hall news conference late yesterday afternoon. "We're on a very tight time frame. That's why it's important to get construction vehicles in there."

A companion article - just so you can appreciate what is really going on here.....
Mayor pressured from all sides
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2004/06/10/mayor_pressured_from_all_sides/

"In any case, Menino advisers said, the BPPA may not be susceptible to lobbying from national Democrats: the union -- among the most active and unpredictable in the city -- endorsed Republican George H.W. Bush instead of then-Massachusetts governor Michael S. Dukakis in 1988."
________________
The head of the policeman's union and the mayor are very much at odds on a personal level. The mayor's son is a police officer. The city's lastest offer is actually decent (like 11.5% over 4 years), but the sticking point appears to be that the police want a "catchup" increase (an additional 4% or so) that is percentage wise comparable to what the teacher's received and the firemen received in 2002. (The teachers' raises were part of an agreement reached years ago, and the
fireman last year). My sense is that the union may be a bit more partisan in all this. In any event, given who they are, they put the fear of god in all the other union members who even attempt to cross the picket line.