Mayors steamed by Obama Administration No-Show Over Union Dispute

Politico reports:

America’s big-city mayors are steaming over what they view as “a very dangerous precedent” set by the Obama administration in its decision to shun the U.S. Conference of Mayors annual meeting in Providence, R.I., this week.

In its attempt to honor the picket line of a local firefighters union involved in a labor dispute with the city, the administration has inadvertently angered some of its staunchest supporters in urban America, who argue that by declining to send an official contingent to the three-day mayors’ conference, the administration is caving in to labor and snubbing local governments at a time of economic strife.

“It was a horrible decision,” said Mayor Michael Pizzi, an independent from Miami Lakes, Fla. “No matter where Obama goes, no matter what city you go to in the United States, you’re going to have some union that’s having problems.”

In his speech to the conference Saturday, Miami Mayor Manny Diaz, president of the USCM, suggested the administration was unwilling to make the kind of tough political choices that mayors must make every day.

Chicago's labor movement, historically, has been controlled by these sorts of individuals.