By Tom MacDonald

– A Philadelphia City Councilman is scratching his head over an endorsement — or lack thereof — by two municipal labor unions.

Councilman David Oh says the police and firefighters unions both endorsed him during the primary, and he thought that support extended to the general election.

“Unless I get an actual communication from the unions themselves — letterhead, phone call, text message — I can’t take second-hand information as being accurate or proper,” Oh said.

That second-hand information is in the form of a press release saying the unions have not endorsed Oh for the general election. The e-mail sent to reporters says it’s shameful that Oh is using the names of the unions, which don’t plan to endorse him in the fall. Oh says he’s been asked to come before the unions for another interview.

“I’m happy to talk to the firefighters leadership to see what is going on,” he said. “I still intend to present myself as a candidate, as
a strong voice for our firefighters and police officers.”

Oh finished first in the primary voting on the Republican side of the ballot.

Source – http://www.newsworks.org/index.php/local/item/86405-councilman-questioned-over-claiming-union-endorsement-he-doesnt-have

By Neema Roshania

– By now it’s all a whirlwind. When do I need a special ticket to ride SEPTA again? When do I have to get my car off the street? What days will my garbage be collected?

Here’s a day-by-day breakdown of how things will be playing out. Be sure to check out our Pope in Philly FAQs, too at: http://www.newsworks.org/popeinphilly/item/84074-pope-in-philly-faq#question-10

Sunday, Sept. 20

The city will begin towing cars in the “secure perimeter” and “secure vehicle perimeter” at 6 p.m. on a schedule through Wednesday to accommodate construction of those two zones for the papal visit.

#MAP – Go to the map that shows how the towing schedule breaks down at: http://www.phila.gov/InformationCenters/pope/Documents/Final%20Tow%20Plan.pdf

The Navy Hospital lot at 1600 Pattison Ave. is offering 1,500 free parking spots.

Another option is to buy a “no-tow” permit in advance from the Philadelphia Parking Authority. For $20, affected residents will get a placard for their windshields allowing them to park within the secure perimeters that exempts them from having their cars towed. The placard also guarantees them one of 2,000 spots in six garages:

Gateway Parking Garage – 16th and Vine streets
Family Courthouse Garage – 15th and Arch streets
Old City AutoPark – Second and Sansom streets
Jefferson AutoPark – 10th and Ludlow streets
The Gallery Mall AutoPark – Ninth and Filbert streets
Chestnut Street Surface Lot – Eighth and Chestnut streets

Garage parking with a PPA placard will begin at 6 p.m. on Thursday.

Monday, Sept. 21

Towing continues per the #map.

Tuesday, Sept. 22

Towing continues per the #map.

Wednesday, Sept. 23

The Philadelphia School District closes through Friday. Municipal courts close through Monday.

Thursday, Sept. 24

All nonessential city services and offices close through Monday.

At 6 p.m., 15 Indego bike share stations close through Sunday. Other locations will remain open for use by Philadelphians and visitors. Certain stations will be staffed by Indego employees to answer questions and help with service.

At 10 p.m., the secure vehicle perimeter and secure perimeter for pedestrians go into effect west of 12th Street.

At 10 p.m., the following SEPTA stations will close:

Suburban Station (Regional Rail)
15th Street (MFL and Trolley)
Fifth Street (MFL)
City Hall (BSL)

Thursday evening service will not be affected, but commuters will not be able to board or exit from those stations, including the Transit Entrance at Dilworth Park.

Friday, Sept. 25

No trash collection.

The above-listed SEPTA stations will remain closed.

Regular weekday service continues on the Broad Street and Market Frankford lines.

Late-night train service on Market Frankford and Broad Street lines, MFO/BSO Owl Bus service, and Owl Service on the trolley routes will not operate

Regional rail operates on a special Saturday schedule with the following changes.

Service on regional rail will begin at 6 a.m. except for the Airport Line
No service to/from Suburban Station
Limited Wilmington/Newark service to Newark and Churchmans Crossing
Limited Cynwyd Line service will operate with trains going to Jefferson Station

At 6 p.m., additional bus detours and route alterations begin as perimeters in Center City are established for the Francis Festival Grounds.

At 6 p.m., the Francis Festival Zone traffic restrictions and road closures go into effect in Center City and areas east of the Schuylkill. If you drive your car outside the perimeter after this time, you won’t be able to drive back in until Monday morning.

At 10 p.m., the Francis Festival Zone traffic restrictions and road closures go into effect in University City. If you drive your car outside of University City after this time, you won’t be able to drive back in until Monday morning.

At 10 p.m., bus detours for routes operating in West Philadelphia between 29th and 38th streets go into effect.

At 10 p.m., the following highways will close:

I-76 eastbound from I-476 to I-95
I-76 westbound from I-95 to US-1
I-676 both directions from I-76 to I-95
US-1 both directions from US Route 30 to Belmont Avenue
The Benjamin Franklin Bridge (emergency vehicles and pedestrians will be allowed to cross)

I-95 will remain open with select ramps closed.

Saturday, Sept. 26

Anyone using regional rail must have a special pre-purchased SEPTA pass for the papal weekend that designates specific times and stations for travelling in and out of the city.

At 2 a.m., taxis will no longer operate within the Francis Festival Zone

At 6 a.m., security and metal detectors open at entrances around the secure perimeter.

At 6 p.m., the secure perimeter around Independence Mall disbands.

Sunday, Sept. 27

Anyone using regional rail must have a special pre-purchased SEPTA pass for the papal weekend that designates specific times and stations for travelling in and out of the city.

At 6 a.m., security and metal detectors open at entrances around the secure perimeter for the papal Mass.

Monday, Sept. 28

At 3 a.m., taxis will begin operating again within the zone.

At noon, the Benjamin Franklin Bridge reopens to traffic in and out of the city.

The time for dissolving the secure vehicle perimeter has not yet been announced.

For more details check out our Pope in Philly FAQ at: http://www.newsworks.org/popeinphilly/item/84074-pope-in-philly-faq#question-10

Source – http://www.newsworks.org/index.php/homepage-feature/item/86327-heres-a-day-by-day-breakdown-of-popeinphilly-changes-going-into-effect?linktype=hp_impact

By The Philly Public Record (Reprinted from CNN)

– Pope Francis will be the first pontiff in history to address Congress. It’s worth paying close attention to a Pope who reminds us that honoring the dignity of work is a cornerstone for any just society.

The spiritual leader of more than a billion Catholics isn’t a politician or activist, but it’s not hard to imagine him rolling up his sleeves and joining the “Fight for 15” – a national movement winning pay increases for fast-food workers — or standing alongside federal contract employees on Capitol Hill who clean and cook for the nation’s powerful but earn poverty wages.

During a recent speech in Bolivia, the Pope sounded like a fiery union organizer.

“Let us not be afraid to say it: we want change, real change, structural change,” Francis insisted, highlighting labor, along with access to affordable housing and land, as “sacred rights.” When he met with unemployed Italian workers in 2013, the Pope had stark words for business leaders dodging their ethical responsibilities. “Not paying fairly, not giving a job because you are only looking at how to make a profit — that goes against God,” he said.

These are timely messages that need to be heard in the United States.

In the years after World War II, wages for most American workers grew. Strong unions and government policies helped create a vibrant middle class. The era was characterized by relative shared prosperity.

But by the middle of the 1970s, pathways to the American dream narrowed. Over the next 30 years, productivity remained high but workers watched their earnings stagnate, attacks on unions grow and retirement portfolios fizzle.

Public policies that served the common good gave way to privatization and anti-government ideologies that often benefited multinational companies more than struggling families. It’s not a coincidence that as the share of workers represented by a union declined dramatically, the gap between the wealthiest few and everyone else became a huge chasm.

A recent study from Glassdoor Economic Research found the average CEO compensation at 26 companies on the S&P stock index is now more than 500 times their average workers’ pay. While the unemployment rate is falling and the economy is showing signs of growth, take-home pay is dropping for the nation’s lowest-paid workers.

And for all the lofty rhetoric from politicians, the United States is the only developed country without guaranteed paid family leave for workers who need to care for a newborn, a sick spouse or dying parent.

Only 12% of US workers have access to paid family medical leave through their employees. At least43 million working Americans don’t even have a single paid sick day.

While Pope Francis won’t come to Congress with a 10-point policy agenda, his emphasis on the dignity of labor and the need to challenge what he calls “an economy of exclusion” should be a wake-up call.

Some US conservative pundits and politicians insist the Pope is naive — a socialist who doesn’t understand American-style capitalism.

These critics conveniently ignore the fact that for more than a century, bedrock Catholic social teaching has affirmed workers’ right to organize and recognized the limits of unfettered markets.

While powerful GOP Catholics, including Speaker John Boehner and Congressman Paul Ryan, oppose a modest increase to the federal minimum wage, the Catholic Church has supported a living wage since the late 19th century, when Pope Leo XIII stood in solidarity with workers during a time when the savage inequalities of the Industrial Revolution left laborers routinely exploited.

The Reagan administration effectively declared war on organized labor. The Catholic Church stood strong. “No one may deny the right to organize without attacking human dignity itself,” the US bishops wrote in a powerful 1986 national pastoral letter. “Therefore we firmly oppose organized efforts, such as those regrettably now seen in this country, to break existing unions and prevent workers from organizing.”

The once-strong ties between the labor movement and the Catholic Church frayed in recent decades. A generation of bishops, many forged with memories of growing up in union families and steeped in Catholic-labor solidarity, were replaced by church leaders often more organized behind fighting same-sex marriage than speaking out for economic justice. In 2011, when a coalition of more than 200 faith leaders in Ohio united to oppose a law that significantly weakened collective bargaining for public workers, the state’s Catholic bishops took a neutral position and stayed quiet.

Will the times change in the Francis era? Will we see a “Francis effect” on church-labor ties?

A Pope who has called inequality “the root of social evil” and consistently defends workers against a profit-first mentality has emboldened Catholic leaders to put more institutional muscle behind the church’s ancient teachings about the common good.

Bishop Robert McElroy, tapped by the Pope to lead the Diocese of San Diego, has argued that the priorities Francis has placed at the center of his papacy “demand a transformation of the existing Catholic political conversation in our nation.” He was one of several bishops, including Cardinal Donald Wuerl of Washington, who attended a June conference on workers’ rights and solidarity co-sponsored by the AFL-CIO and The Catholic University of America. The event turned heads in Washington and signals a rekindling of church-labor fires.

“For the labor movement, Pope Francis’ lessons of solidarity and inclusion are exactly what we need,” said Richard Trumka, the AFL-CIO’s president, which represents more than 50 unions and 12.5 million workers. He was speaking to an audience filled with Catholic clergy and progressive activists.

The status quo is hard to change. But a populist Pope with a common touch is pumping new energy into the Catholic Church. Along the way, he just might turn out to be the best friend the labor movement has seen in years.

Source – http://www.phillyrecord.com/2015/09/pope-francis-the-labor-movements-best-friend/

By Laura Benshoff

– Last week, Radnor, Pennsylvania, teachers working without a contract said they would refrain from writing college recommendation letters until October.

That move sent a shock wave through Radnor High School’s senior class, who wrote to the school board asking for a speedy resolution to the contract talks and urging the teachers union “to drop its protest strategy of withholding our recommendation letters.”

On Wednesday, the Radnor Township Education Association relented, releasing a statement that teachers would “commence [the] recommendation letter writing process immediately,” but that the tactic was “the most immediate way to generate awareness and ask for awareness of parents and students.”

Since school started Sept. 8, teachers have staged informational pickets and worn black to draw attention to the prolonged contract negotiations. Their last contract, which covered 2010 to 2013, was extended for another two years and expired at the end of August. The Radnor Township School District, in Delaware County, is also negotiating with two other unions, representing all other school district employees.

Teachers union president David Wood said the school board has been “invested in fields and parking spaces and sign posts” rather than “invested in excellence,” the district’s motto. Teachers are asking to be paid on the same level as teachers in competitive neighboring districts, such as Lower Merion, where median annual salaries are up to $20,000 higher, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer.

In a statement earlier this week, Superintendent Michael J. Kelly said the board has met with the teachers union six times between January and the end of August. A mediator from the Pennsylvania Department of Labor has been brought in to assist with negotiations.

In response to concerns about the letters, school officials held an assembly for Radnor High School seniors Tuesday morning. Some students wore white to an open house to protest being “forced right in the middle” of the contract dispute.

The union’s Wednesday statement said student response to the labor dispute made “us proud to be their teachers, counselors, and mentors.”

While letters were not being written, guidance counselors had picked up the slack and had also been reaching out to schools proactively to ensure that students could meet admissions deadlines.

The union and school board are slated to resume negotiations next week.

Source – http://www.newsworks.org/index.php/local/item/86238-radnor-teachers-end-moratorium-on-writing-college-recommendations

By Joe Shaheeli

– Philadelphia’s second casino is moving along and its passage through the City’s legal requirements is expected to be speedily approved as voters, burdened by a heavy tax load, are looking for the relief it will bring. The revenue it will generate in taxes for the city and the Commonwealth will help ward off any calls for additional taxes for the support of the City’s public schools.

Surveys have long indicated Philadelphia will benefit from the addition of a second casino, a long-overdue event.

The Xfinity Live! Casino will be located in the sports complex. Its opening will provide over 1,000 jobs, millions in estimated revenue, and will end, happily for taxpayers, the monopoly long enjoyed by SugarHouse casino located in the Fishtown section of Philadelphia.

Cordish Cos., which operates several other casinos, is expected to put a big dent in the many unemployed minority workers in this city, providing hands-on training to the more than 1,000 it will employ.

That will be one of the focuses of Cordish Cos. according to COO Zed Smith.

“As Chief Operating Officer of The Cordish Cos., and an African American,” he stated, “I am very proud of our corporate leadership record in the area of diversity and inclusion, both nationally and in Philadelphia.”

He noted, “In fact, our company’s Xfinity Live! Minority-participation program has been identified as a model program by the City’s Economic Opportunity Agency. Our companies have been recognized by the DC/Maryland Minority Business Association as the ‘Most Inclusive Company’ in that region.”

The Cordish Cos., he added, “have developed a model diversity and equal-opportunity plan to maximize the participation by minority, veterans, local businesses and residents in the development and operations our planned world-class hotel, casino and entertainment project.”

Smith said he is working with 2nd Dist. Councilman Kenyatta Johnson, City Council and the area’s African American leaders to create an open door for minority employees.

Charges of racial discrimination have been hurled periodically at Cordish casinos. But they have been dismissed by the courts to date. They are periodically resurrected by those who don’t wish to see a second casino come into existence. Its record of minority hiring at other casinos it operates readily refutes such discriminatory charges.

In reference to discriminatory charges leveled by the Philadelphia Chapter of the National Action Network, Johnson said, “I take these concerns very seriously, and will ensure that we fully examine them during the process. I was encouraged recently by the report of the Black Clergy of Philadelphia & Vicinity that looked closely at the Cordish Cos. and found no basis for claims of racial insensitivity. This casino presents Philadelphia with a great economic development opportunity, but we must ensure that the operation will be fair and equitable.”

Source – http://www.phillyrecord.com/2015/09/xfinity-live-casino-will-ease-philly-taxes-bring-jobs/