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E-mails show a couple more mayoral aides knew Boston Calling was going union

By adamg on Sat, 05/28/2016 - 8:29am

The Globe reports on a Friday e-mail dump by City Hall; doesn't link the two aides to the sort of pressure a third aide is alleged to have put on Boston Calling organizers.

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Kenneth Brissette
Boston Calling


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Comments

By Ron Newman on Sat, 05/28/2016 - 9:17am.

The city wants to promote a large and fairly new cultural event, and also wants to make sure that working people benefit from it. Promoting the arts was Joyce Linehan's specialty long before she got to City Hall.

I get that Marty Walsh's dealings with Grand Prix and the Olympics were both poorly executed, but Boston Calling looks to me like a success story.

By kernelPanic on Sat, 05/28/2016 - 9:45am.

Can you site your sources that identify the full event crew that Boston Calling had ALREADY HIRED as not being "working people" ?

Now to answer your question ...

This is "bad" because Boston Calling was three days away from the event and the required city permits had not materialized. Yet shortly after they (unnecessarily) hired a small number of union crew the permits magically got issued. Lots of smoke and documented conversations indicating that the ONLY reason the event organizers had trouble with the city was due to the hiring decisions that they were free and legally able to make.

Not trying to be too snarky here and I understand where you are coming from (I'm also pro union) -- it's fine to encourage hiring union labor but in this case the city crossed a stark line from "encouragement" into blatant illegal extortion. And apparently the feds think they have more than enough evidence of this as well.

By Ron Newman on Sat, 05/28/2016 - 10:00am.

Does the city legitimately have more say over the event when it's on City Hall Plaza, rather than on private property (such as the Harvard athletic fields where it will move to next year)?

By bibliotequetressnotloggedin... on Sat, 05/28/2016 - 10:50am.

I thought that requiring union labor for an event on city property (or to fulfill a city contract) was something the city could do-- just as it can require priority be given to contractors who hire people with disabilities, or to minority owned businesses, etc.

When the details of the investigation were revealed, I was scratching my head, wondering if this was actually illegal. Requiring that unions labor is used in some circumstances means that the work is guaranteed to be paid a good wage, the right insurance & safeguards are in place, and so on, and the union makes sure this is the case-- no need for the city to pay many people to oversee it.

Clearly, I was wrong in regards to the illegality. However, this doesn't strike me as the worst thing that could ever happen.

By DPM on Sat, 05/28/2016 - 1:23pm.

Governmental extortion of private parties is not among the worst things that can happen?

Governmental extortion is absolutely one of the worst abuses of power.

By DPM on Sat, 05/28/2016 - 11:00am.

You do not get to withhold permits from people until they hire people you like. That is called extortion.

Could the city have set policy requiring specific hiring practices in order to use city property? Probably, but they did not do so.

By cinnamngrl on Sat, 05/28/2016 - 12:32pm.

The changed it to workers later. These so called hires we volunteering in exchange for the price of admission which they were required to pay up front through PayPal. They get a refund if their work is acceptable.

By anon on Sat, 05/28/2016 - 1:19pm.

Stage labor was almost certainly provided by a non-union production company.

I worked in the industry for years, both union and non. A company is hired to provide the staffing for the stagework. This can be union or not or even a combination depending on circumstances. For instance it's not uncommon for non-Union labor to build the scaffolding for the stage and sound and light towers while Union labor is used for the stage work itself.
More examples are NFL events at Gillette like the championship home opening shows are all union stagehand labor. A concert there may hire union or non depending on production company. (At least this was the case 10 years ago. I don't believe Gillette has signed a contract to exclusively use union labor.)

The "volunteers" you're referring to would be event staff working in VIP areas, answering phones and running errands, setting up tents and signage, assisting guests, etc.

It would be a dangerous and chaotic nightmare to try to set up and operate the stage of an event like this with unskilled volunteers. It's not how the industry works.

Please stop spreading misinformation.

By cinnamngrl on Sat, 05/28/2016 - 2:16pm.

At http://bostoncalling.com/labor.html

I don't know which hires are stage hands and which are not. Why don't you find out the truth if you actually have some expertise in this. Then you can be %100 sure, and won't need to call me a liar.

By anon on Sat, 05/28/2016 - 2:47pm.

This is the information I found, quoted verbatim from the the indictment:

"In connection with these music festivals, beginning in March 2013, lATSE Local
11 attempted to obtain work for its union members from Company A. Company A was not a
signatory to any collective bargaining agreement with Local 11. Company A repeatedly
explained to a Local representative that it had entered into a contract with a non-union
company - that is, a company that did not employ labor union members - to perform the work
at its music festivals and did not need any additional help."

Company A is Boston Calling. They hired a company to provide non-union labor, just as I said.

Honestly you should have read the indictment before spending days arguing your position on UH.

And for the record I said you were spreading misinformation, I didn't call you a liar.

Will you please stop now?

Good Grief.

By cinnamngrl on Sun, 05/29/2016 - 12:33am.

Is company employing professional non union stage hands or volunteers?

By anon on Sun, 05/29/2016 - 6:39pm.

Explicitly. And quoted the source. Please reread my post or the actual indictment as many times as it takes to grasp this..

Sorry, can't do your homework for you.

By cinnamngrl on Tue, 05/31/2016 - 2:03pm.

Your source does not identify the type of employee that was replaced by union worker. Since that is question MY previous post asked, you missed my point.

By anon on Fri, 06/03/2016 - 1:55pm.

The indictment is alleging extortion by Brissette forcing the festival to hire additional union STAGEHANDS.

11 only does STAGEWORK. That's what this entire case is about: Stage work, stage work, stage work.

Good Lord, it's not that hard.

BTW, the "volunteer" hiring practices you keep referring to do seem suspect. But that's not what the indictment nor I nor anyone else except you are talking about.

By cinnamngrl on Fri, 06/03/2016 - 8:58pm.

How many stagehands did they plan to hire originally?

By anon on Sat, 05/28/2016 - 5:41pm.

if this is how they pay workers.

Here are the requirements:

- You must be 18 years or older to apply.

- You must be available to work May 26th-30th, 2016. (Most shifts are May 27th-29th)

- You must pay the $10, non-refundable application fee to be considered.

- If selected, you will have to put down a deposit for a 3 day festival pass ($185) via PayPal, after you have completed your 2, 6 hour shifts to a satisfactory level, we will refund the deposit within 7 days of the festival’s end.

- You must be willing to work in the designated department you are assigned to.

By DPM on Sat, 05/28/2016 - 7:11pm.

Of course someone is making money. People do not do things like this out of some sense of altruism.

By roadman on Tue, 05/31/2016 - 2:13pm.

You have to pay a fee to even be considered for a job AND, if selected, you then have to put down a deposit in order to be able to work. Seems to me that the Mayor's Office isn't the only place where extortion was apparently going on here.

By JohnAKeith on Sun, 05/29/2016 - 11:01am.

Just further clarifying: City Hall Plaza is owned by the Boston Redevelopment Authority, not "the City", so perhaps the Boston Calling people should have been talking with them about staffing?

By SoBo-Yuppie on Sat, 05/28/2016 - 9:47am.

working people benefit from it

more like hacks, sitting around doing nothing but collecting a paycheck....benefit from it.

By cinnamngrl on Sat, 05/28/2016 - 12:36pm.

Whether or not the city did something wrong, union workers are not all hacks.

By anon on Sat, 05/28/2016 - 1:05pm.

That's rich coming from someone who identifies themself as sobo-yuppie.

By anon on Sat, 05/28/2016 - 2:02pm.

But being a union laborer is a worthy profession. Your 1% trolling is amusing, considering that you claim to reside in Southie. Nobody who has real money in this city is impressed.

By anon on Sat, 05/28/2016 - 10:00am.

I didn't know Boston Calling was by and large anti-union... definitely changes my opinion of it. Disappointed.

By DPM on Sat, 05/28/2016 - 11:02am.

Where did you get the impression they were anti union? Because the representatives of the city attempted to extort them?

This makes you disappointed in Boston calling? Your disappointment is ill targeted.

By anon on Sat, 05/28/2016 - 2:15pm.

Was Boston Calling allowed to hired private security or mandated to hire police details whats the difference between police and other union workers?

By Bob Leponge on Sat, 05/28/2016 - 3:24pm.

In one case we have a law on the books that requires police details. The law can be debated and discussed. People who don't like the law can vote for their choice of elected representatives who would change the law. In the other case we have an official in government refusing to issue a permit unless the applicant hires the official's friends.

By anon on Sat, 05/28/2016 - 5:44pm.

Or is that up to the feds?

By Guvnor Coakley on Sat, 05/28/2016 - 7:53pm.

AG Healy is a loud and proud union supporter. There will be no impartial investigation by her office.

By anon on Sun, 05/29/2016 - 3:23pm.

But criminality and abuse of public office is bad. And bad for unions, when inevitable backlash happens.

I don't know this AG, but they might agree.

By Felicity on Sat, 05/28/2016 - 4:50pm.

One of my favorite UHub comments of all time, was when Dvdoff predicted Joyce Linehan will be managing a Newbury Comics in 2018.

By DPM on Sun, 05/29/2016 - 5:30pm.

This is why MA needs a 2 party system. Where is the AG right now? Sleeping on the job? Why does it take the feds to attack corruption? The AG in its failure to act ahould be facing heavy criticism. Instead she is protectong us from 'gun violence' in dc

By Ken on Tue, 05/31/2016 - 8:08am.

There is just no way that Joyce Linnehan threatened anyone for any reason. That's just not who she is. She has an enormous amount of integrity and simply wouldn't be a part of intimidation. Her name mentioned with such charges brings into question the charges and the motivation of the prosecutor.

Her background is with large event planning and her involvement likely signals that the City was working in good faith to legitimately resolve issues and/or misunderstandings with Boston Calling.