Union head blasts expansion plans

Convention center union blasts expansion plan
By Thomas Grillo and Jay Fitzgerald | Tuesday, November 24, 2009 | http://www.bostonherald.com | Business & Markets

A proposal by the Massachusetts Convention Center Authority to expand its sprawling South Boston complex is being blasted by a top labor official despite months of secret meetings in a failed effort to shore up support.

“I’m fed up with broken promises,” said Janice Loux, president of Unite Here Local 26, the union representing 500 workers at the MCCA’s Back Bay and newer South Boston facilities. “We’ve gotten nothing but labor strife (at the new center) and now they want to expand. . . . I will oppose any expansion if it doesn’t take into account the welfare of the workers.”

The plan to expand the Southie convention center was first floated more than two years ago.

A $700,000 study by architectural firm Sasaki Associates was released yesterday at a hastily assembled press conference that the governor and mayor, recuperating from surgery, both skipped.

No details about how the expansion would be paid for were revealed in the 80-page report or a five-page press release.

Despite a 21 percent decline in events over the last three years, MCCA officials said yesterday that the Boston Convention & Exhibition Center in Southie could support a 1,000-room hotel in addition to the existing Westin Waterfront, 400,000 square feet of added exhibit space, as well as 125,000 square feet of added meeting space, up to 75,000 square feet to accommodate a variety of uses and a 5,000-seat auditorium - to be built next to the Fort Point Channel neighborhood.

Loux, whose union has bitterly battled the Southie center’s concessions vendor, criticized the six-figure salaries and lucrative benefits of center executives, while she said food-service workers are barely surviving.

MCCA Executive Director James Rooney made just under $280,000 last year and was the top earner among more than a dozen MCCA staffers who made over six figures in 2008, according to payroll records obtained by the Herald.

Yesterday, Rooney said he was astounded by Loux’s comments.

“We have created thousands of jobs in food service, housekeeping and security,” said Rooney, whose center has drawn criticism for allowing felons to work at shows.
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