With the U.S. Conference of Mayors descending on Providence, RI next week, there's been much anticipation about the arrival of its headline speaker: Vice President Joe Biden.
However, due to a long-standing contract dispute between the city and its firefighters, Providence firefighters are threatening to picket outside the event. This decision has caused Biden, along with other Cabinet members who were scheduled to attend, to back out of the event. Sorry for the short diary but I think this is awesome.
Robert Gibbs makes it clear that the administration is NOT taking sides on the dispute, but simply respecting the picket line and keeping with their policy of never crossing one:
Presidential spokesman Robert Gibbs told The Associated Press that the administration is taking no position on the labor dispute itself. But, he said, "We have always respected picket lines, and administration officials will not cross this one."
Providence Mayor David Cicilline is chairman of the National Conference of Democratic Mayors but this dispute has gotten personal at times and dogged him for most of his time as mayor. In fact, Hillary Clinton's campaign asked Cicilline to skip her campaign rally in Providence last year as a result of the contract dispute:
Clinton is scheduled to be here Sunday for a fundraiser and rally. Firefighters who have been in a long-running contract dispute with Cicilline have said they would disrupt any Clinton event the mayor attends.
Cicilline told news outlets Thursday that national and local members of Clinton's campaign called him and tried to get him to cave to firefighters' contract demands, something he said he won't do. He also told The Providence Journal that Clinton political and field director Guy Cecil called him and asked him not to attend Sunday's event, a request he said he would honor.
Despite living in Rhode Island, I confess to knowing little about the details of the dispute. Therefore, I can't automatically vilify Cicilline. However, I think it's very cool in principle to see an administration that really has labor's back. Of course there's a certain piece of legislation (hehehe) with which they can show us they REALLY have labor's back, but this new attitude in the White House is definitely change we can believe in.