PHILADELPHIA— Angry over slow union workers and high labor costs, a group of medical professionals has canceled a meeting of 7,000 people here in 2008 and has threatened to cancel a similarly sized convention already booked here for 2012, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer. “In my over 25 years of involvement in producing meetings from New York to Anaheim… I have never been confronted with such a negative labor situation as was experienced in your city,” David A. Karcher, executive director of the American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery, wrote Mayor Street after the societys four-day meeting here, June 1 to 5. The tens of millions of dollars in lost revenue as a result of the canceled meeting underscores the pressure local tourism officials face to find a resolution to long-simmering labor-management issues. “Time is running out” to salvage Philadelphias reputation as a top city in which to hold national conventions, A. Bruce Crawley, chairman of the Philadelphia Convention and Visitors Bureau, said July 18. If improvements are not soon evident, then when the General Assembly reconvenes in September, it will be hard-pressed to approve funding to expand the Convention Center, Crawley said. And if the center does not grow, then it will not be able to compete with larger centers opening in Washington and Boston. The medical society decided to scrap its 2008 meeting, which it booked in 1998, after labor issues arose during the societys meeting here last month. That meeting generated more than $18 million in revenue for Philadelphia hotels, restaurants, shops and transportation-related businesses, according to the society. SOURCE: Philadelphia Inquirer
