PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — Providence Mayor David Cicilline said Monday that he would participate in a national mayors conference this week even as Vice President Joe Biden and other Obama administration officials stay away to avoid a union protest.
The White House said Friday that it would not take part in the conference in Providence to avoid crossing a firefighter picket line and taking sides in a municipal contract dispute. The conference begins Friday and was scheduled partly as a summit on federal stimulus aid.
The firefighters said they would not picket if Cicilline agreed to skip a scheduled luncheon with Biden, but the mayor said he would not step aside and accused the union of "extortion tactics."
"You don't host something and then absent yourself," he said.
Cicilline has been locked in a contract dispute with the firefighters union, primarily over health care contributions and staffing requirements, since taking office in January 2003.
"This is a challenge facing mayors all across this country as we try to balance our budgets, protect our level of services and deal with the economic downturn," he said.
The firefighter union was the only one in the city that does not contribute to its health care, he said. He urged members to pass his latest contract proposal, which would require a 15 percent co-pay for current firefighters but also cuts vacation time and raises minimum retirement age.
Paul Doughty, the president of the union, Local 799, said the union does not object to paying for health care but insists that the contribution be a flat fee from year to year.
Doughty said he welcomed the attention given to his labor dispute.
"We are taking the opportunity because it's a national spotlight to say, 'Hey, this guy isn't giving us a fair shake,'" Doughty said.
The mayors conference is to run though Monday. It is intended as a forum for mayors from around the country, with discussion topics this year including tourism, stimulus aid and managing foreclosed properties.
It also's seen as a revenue lift for Providence, a financially struggling city that faces a $17 million budget deficit for the year ending in June.
"It puts people into the hotels and the restaurants and drives revenue," said Laurie White, president of the Greater Providence Chamber of Commerce. "At its core, it's people who are spending money."
The dispute has been costly for the mayor, and the city, on the national political stage.
In September 2007, Cicilline resigned his position as co-chairman of Hillary Rodham Clinton's Democratic presidential campaign in Rhode Island after the firefighters union threatened to picket an upcoming Clinton fundraiser.
He later said the campaign had urged him to cave to the union's demand, a charge the campaign denied.
And in 2004, then-Democratic vice presidential candidate John Edwards skipped a scheduled stop in Providence, also to avoid crossing a picket line.