Rowdy Protesters Demanding Jobs Invited Inside Council

It was a quieter day inside City Hall as protesters who yelled just outside the mayor's office Friday spoke one by one in council chambers Monday.

"The wages are ridiculously mundane. I've received a quarter raise in my two years working there," Justin Cunningham is talking about his job on the North Shore.

Along with many other union workers, Cunningham wants middle class wages and affordable housing. The workers feel there should be a local benefit to the development popping up along the North Shore.

Service-Sector Union members protested outside Pittsburgh Mayor Luke Ravenstahl's office Friday morning, demanding jobs.

About 100 members participated in Friday's protest at about 8 a.m. The protesters said they want Ravenstahl to address the fact that mostly low-wage jobs have been created by new developments subsidized by taxpayer money. They said these jobs keep families poor.

Two busloads worth of people entered the City-County building on Grant Street, chanting, "We want the mayor. We want the mayor."

The protesters said they want the mayor to address the problem that many of the new developments, subsidized by taxpayer money, have created low-wage jobs, keeping Pittsburgh families in poverty.

While outside of the mayor's fifth-floor office, there was some pushing and shoving as a couple of union members tried to force their way in. The crowd was loud and started chanting, "We are unions fighting for justice."

It appeared as if union members tried to force their way into the office, and security held them off by chaining the door shut. However, Ravenstahl's spokeswoman, Joanna Doven, said the doors are supposed to be locked until 9 a.m.

"What good is it if Pittsburgh has minimum-wage, non-living-wage jobs?" said protester Tony Helfer. "We have to change the city. They turn around and build these buildings and give the corporations major play, and then when it comes to people who work, the jobs are at the bottom of the barrel."

Doven said all the mayor's employees were able to get to work Friday despite the protest. She said Ravenstahl is not in the office and will not be arriving Friday due to prescheduled events.