Unions Protest City's Development Strategies

Over 100 members of Pittsburgh’s service-sector unions held a sit-down protest outside Mayor Luke Ravenstahl’s Grant Street office this morning, until police asked the group to leave. Representatives from local branches of the Service Employees International Union, United Food and Commercial Workers, and the International Union of Operating Engineers demanded good jobs and green buildings at new development sites across the city.

SEIU of Western Pennsylvania Director Gabe Morgan says developments are okay, but good jobs are better. “It’s true that there are good construction jobs created in the city by development. But after the buildings are built, there are hundreds of service-sector workers in those buildings making poverty-level wages, normally, and often without any benefits,” says Morgan.

He says despite the recent bill regulating green buildings, the city needs to do more. "We’re a city trying to transform ourselves, the first industrial, former Rust Belt city trying to transform itself into a green city. If you’re going to get a public subsidy, the city should be promoting green jobs; it should be promoting green buildings. And that’s better not just for the environment… but for the city as a whole,” says Morgan.

The unions plan to return to the mayor’s office at 2:00 p.m. today to continue their protest.