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Sunday, August 25, 2002

By Lawrence Walsh, Post-Gazette Staff Writer

President Bush may be coming to Pittsburgh on Labor Day to speak at a carpenter's union training center on Neville Island, but security concerns will deter him from marching in the annual Labor Day Parade, Downtown.

Jack Brooks, secretary/treasurer of the Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America, said the president is expected to speak in the early afternoon at the training site.

White House spokeswoman Jeanie Mamo said she wasn't able to confirm the president's visit because his schedule for Sept. 2 hasn't been released.

But Brooks is confident Bush will be here next Monday.

"The advance team will be in town [tomorrow] to check things out," he said. Brooks said he invited the president to town when they met at the Economic Summit in Waco, Texas earlier this month.

Pennsylvania's Republican gubernatorial candidate Mike Fisher plans to march with the carpenters in the Labor Day parade, as he has for the past several years, but Kent Gates, his campaign manager, said last night that he was unaware of a potential presidential visit to the carpenters' training site.

Democratic gubernatorial candidate Ed Rendell plans to attend Labor Day events in the Lehigh Valley, a location closer to Philadelphia, where he formally served as mayor.

Brooks said he first met Bush on Aug. 5 when the president was in town to visit the Quecreek miners and attend a fund-raiser for state Attorney General Mike Fisher, the Republican gubernatorial candidate.

"I spoke to him three times at the Economic Summit," Brooks said. "He's very personable. I was impressed with him. I think he is better in one-on-one situations. He made a point of going from table to table during the luncheon to shake hands with everyone and thank them for coming."

Brooks said Bush and the union don't agree on everything, "but we disagreed with Clinton, too. My point is, he's the president and we should treat him as such. I think it will be good for the city to have him here."

He said he wants the president to see the union's state-approved, four-year training center where close to 1,000 apprentices are trained on an individual basis every year. "We teach the basics and then they report to a construction site.

"We have them in [the center] three weeks out of every quarter," Brooks said. "There is no tax money involved. It is between their employers and us. We're a nonprofit operation, but we don't go after grants."

Brooks said the union represents 15,000 workers in 60 counties in Pennsylvania. About 2,000 members are expected to march in the Labor Day Parade.

Lawrence Walsh can be reached at lwalsh@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1488.