From Deseret News archives:
Labor leaders shun Rocky
Mayor's decision to cross picket line still chafes
The mayor got the cold shoulder from labor delegates who are still steaming over his decision to cross a picket line during a national mayor's conference, also held in Boston.
"I don't know about everyone, but for my part, I don't talk to scabs," said Carlos Vasquez, a truck driver and Teamster who represented his union in a half-page ad that ran in USA Today this week.
"I'm just choosing to ignore him," Ed Mayne, the head of the AFL-CIO in Utah, said of the mayor. "He's a loose cannon."
Mayne and the mayor did exchange a few heated words before Anderson sat down with the delegation to hear the night's speeches, including a much anticipated address from another controversial political figure, Teresa Heinz Kerry.
When Anderson tried to tell Mayne that other mayors at the conference had done the same thing, the union leader shot back, "They didn't brag about it."
Anderson made news when he helped bring Massachusetts' Republican governor, Mitt Romney, to the mayor's conference as a replacement speaker for Sen. John Kerry after the presidential candidate refused to cross the picket line.
The mayor said he was surprised by the reception he received from the labor delegates, especially since he just announced a new policy calling on companies doing business with Salt Lake City to pay living wages.
"To insinuate that anyone is a bad Democrat because they went to their event is very hard for me to understand," Anderson said. "I don't go blindly along with anyone."
This is just the latest incident to cause friction between Utah's most controversial mayor and his fellow Democrats. Four years ago, he snubbed them at the party's national convention to attend a so-called "shadow" convention.
He'd already sparked a vote by Utah delegates not to cross picket lines expected at welcoming parties thrown by convention organizers on Sunday. A last-minute settlement with city firefighters allowed them to join in the celebrations.
"It's always hard to predict what Rocky will do," Vasquez said. "I never thought he would have crossed a picket line."
Nancy Woodside, vice chairman of Utah's Democratic Party, said Anderson's action embarrassed the state's Democrats. "If the Democratic Party is about anything, it's about supporting working people," she said.
Still, Woodside hasn't given up on the mayor.
"Maybe he's learned his lesson," she said.
Not every member of the Utah delegation was angry with Anderson.
"Big deal," said Beverly White, a former state legislator. "I wouldn't call him volatile. He does what he thinks is right even if it isn't."
There were some encouraging words for Utah Democrats on Tuesday from former presidential candidate Howard Dean.
"We're going to be proud to call ourselves Democrats, not just here in Boston," Dean said in a rousing speech urging the party faithful not to be ashamed of being Democrats.
"We're going to be proud to call ourselves Democrats in Mississippi, proud to call ourselves Democrats in Utah and Idaho. And we're going to be proud to call ourselves Democrats in Texas."
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