Authority chairman Thomas "Buck" Riley also acknowledged the errors, attributing them to other issues that had occupied the board, including securing expansion funding and completing an operating agreement for the new building. "I'm not even aware that we had any other reports due to the commonwealth," he said.
Another part of the agreement, creating a "unified workforce," was never fully implemented. One aim was to allow Teamsters, laborers, and carpenters to perform one another's work without regard to union membership.
Officials at Elliott-Lewis acknowledge that this was not done, in part because varying skill sets among workers made it difficult. Carpenters, for example, don't normally operate forklifts. However, they said another aim of unifying the workforce - decreasing jurisdictional disputes - had been met. There have been no work stoppages since the 2003 agreement.
With no independent assessment of the agreement available, the most relevant information may come from Tradeshow Week, a publication that covered the convention industry before ceasing publication recently.
In its 2009 annual survey, Philadelphia's labor costs were generally higher than costs in many competitor cities, except for Boston and New York, according to the publication. Philadelphia had among the highest rates for operating forklifts, ranging from $340 to $518 an hour, depending on what was moved.
The survey was based on responses from trade-show contractors, who hire union workers from Elliott-Lewis, and included their charges as well as actual worker wages and benefits.
Local labor officials called the survey misleading. For instance, the magazine listed $107 as the hourly rate for carpentry work, when Elliott-Lewis charges $77. The difference is the average markup by contractors.
There is anecdotal evidence as well, provided by planners whose experience allows them to compare host cities. Although the work rules here continue to baffle, some take the longer view and find improvements.
"Philadelphia, like many cities, used to have unique loopholes that can make things difficult," said Bobbie Turner, convention director of the American College of Physicians, which met here in 2009.
In a qualified assessment, Turner said: "I think they eliminated quite a few of those obstacles."
Coming Tuesday Convention Irony
Labor unions, which have big annual conventions, aren't coming to Philadelphia. Why? Because there are too few union hotels. The city's two big convention headquarters hotels - those closest or attached to a convention center, in this case the Philadelphia Marriott Downtown, above, and the Loews Philadelphia across
Market Street - are nonunion.
Contact staff writer Marcia Gelbart
at 215-854-2338 or mgelbart@phillynews.com.
