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You can't always get what you want
Teamsters threaten to shut down Rolling Stones concerts in San Francisco
By Kim Curtis, The Associated Press
November 5, 2002
SAN FRANCISCO -- Teamsters pledged Monday to shut down two Rolling Stones concerts this weekend at Pacific Bell Park if the promoter, Clear Channel Communications, does not agree to use union workers.
Ben Margot / AP
Teamsters picket Monday's arrival of a truck carrying materials to be used for the construction of the stage for this weekend's Rolling Stones concert at Pacific Bell Park in San Francisco. The Teamsters are upset with the concert's promoters
"We've been having trouble with Clear Channel for years," said William Cromartie, president of Brotherhood of Teamsters Local 85. "They want to bring in kids to work for $6 or $7 an hour and give them a T-shirt."
About 50 Teamsters picketed Monday outside Pac Bell Park, home of the San Francisco Giants, as tractor-trailers began arriving to deliver equipment for the Friday and Saturday shows. At least three trucks turned around without making deliveries after Teamsters talked to the drivers.
The Teamsters say they should be unloading those trucks and unionized stagehands should be setting up the stage and the lights. Instead, Bill Graham Presents, San Francisco's largest concert promoter and a subsidiary of Clear Channel, will use its own nonunion workers.
Cromartie said that means union members will miss out on about 100 jobs during the next eight days.
Howard Schacter, a spokesman for Clear Channel's entertainment division, refused to discuss the company's policies regarding union labor.
"This is specifically a local dispute between Bill Graham Presents and the local Teamsters," he said.
Bill Graham Presents said it's never had a relationship with the Teamsters.
"We have the expertise developed to do those jobs," said spokeswoman Sherry Wasserman. "They are using this high-profile show to strongarm us."
Wasserman said the San Francisco concert promoter does have a relationship with the stagehands' union. But if they refuse to work, nonunion workers will be hired to replace them.
"Some of their work starts today," Wasserman said. "If they decide to honor this strike for union reasons, we will have a crew ready and we will have a show."
Giants Enterprises, which organizes non-baseball events at the stadium, uses union workers to sell concessions, to serve food and beverages and to clean the park.
But when they sign contracts with concert promoters, "we don't provide the service that they need for their staging equipment," said spokeswoman Shana Daum. "We don't dictate who they can and can't use."
Mark Fabris, a trade show foreman picketing on Monday, also spent $608 for two 18th row tickets for Friday's show. He said Teamster bylaws prohibit him from crossing any picket line.
"I'm a big fan. I've never seen them before," he said. "But I've been a Teamster for almost 20 years and I'm not going to go if this is still going on. |
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Stones Tour Strike
Nov. 4 � "You can't always get what you want." That's the message a concert promoter is giving Teamsters. The union is pledging to shut down two Rolling Stones concerts at Pac Bell Park this weekend. What they want is to be hired by the promoter Bill Graham Presents. ABC7's Lyanne Melendez reports.
Tractor-trailers made their way through the Teamsters picketing outside Pac Bell Park Monday.
The Teamsters are demanding to do be hired to load and off load equipment used in the Rolling Stones concert � a job being done now by non-union workers.
Ray Solis, Teamster: "Anything on wheels, you're going to roll, we're going to work it. If you're only here for a couple of days, do what everybody else does, hire us."
Hiring them is something Bill Graham Presents has never done in 30 years of promoting concerts in the Bay Area.
So why now? Why this concert?
Sherry Wasserman, Bill Graham Presents: "We don't understand why, we presented the first rock concert here last year with David Mathews, two sold-out shows, we didn't employ the teamsters nor did they ask to work."
The promoters say the Teamsters are just using this high-profile show to promote their cause.
The Teamsters are speaking to San Francisco's labor council and have asked Mayor Willie Brown to step in.
Van Beane, Teamster: "We're asking them to come to the table and iron out an agreement and have union members offload the trucks." Bill Graham Presents does hire union workers. IATSE � the stagehands union � has been setting up stages for years.
But IATSEE today announced their union members will not cross the picket line.
Sherry Wasserman, Bill Graham Presents: "I'm sure other unions will have to. They have the responsibility to not walk across the picket lines whether they agree with it or not
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