By Jim O'Sullivan

Steve Murphy and Maureen Feeney picked up Jimmy Kelly Monday morning, and drove down to Mul's Diner for breakfast, three Boston politicians with a combined 37 years on the City Council.

Kelly's health has hampered the South Boston politician lately, but that was just part of the reason he opted for a bacon-and-egg sandwich at the Broadway staple rather than head down to the Park Plaza. Kelly, the recording secretary for Sheet Metal Workers Local 17, Murphy, an at-large councillor, and Feeney, representing Dorchester's District Three, had other reasons for missing Boston's annual labor breakfast.

It was the first time he could remember not starting Labor Day with the crowd downtown, a guest of the Greater Boston Labor Council, Kelly said. All three chose not to attend, at least partially, out of deference to Mayor Thomas M. Menino, another former longtime member of the breakfast club, who had not been invited.

Menino's exclusion by the council, representing 90,000 union members in the Boston area, comes as the city engages in contract negotiations with several municipal unions representing 17,000 city workers, who voted August 6 to block the mayor's attendance. Leading the charge was the Boston Police Patrolman's Association (BPPA), which has hinted that it would picket at next year's Democratic National Convention, to be held in Boston, if a contract has not been settled. BPPA President Thomas Nee did not return phone calls seeking comment for this article.

"I can't mortgage the city's future," Menino told the Reporter Tuesday, insisting that the controversy did not lower his standing with unions.

"Right now we have a financial problem in our city," Menino said, "and they have to realize these are different financial times, and we cannot support the contracts we gave in the past."

The unions' decision touched off a firestorm of "political football" when it was announced in early August, a hubbub that climaxed Monday, when several unions and a number of local elected officials opted to boycott in protest. The battle between traditionally-allied parties made for some strange combatants.

"I think for everyone it was sort of an uncomfortable day," said Feeney, one among nine of the 13-member City Council not at the Park Plaza breakfast.

"I just think that Labor Day is one of those special days of the year for me. It's always been about working men and women coming together and celebrating the successes of the labor movement, especially in the City of Boston," Feeney said.

"A lot of us feel that it was unfair that there was so much dissension around this."

Walsh, the Dorchester state representative who draws much of his base from the labor movement and serves as recording secretary of Laborer's Union Local 223, was attending a family wedding in Rhode Island, but said that he would "probably not" have attended, though he found fault on both sides.

"I don't think it was necessarily the right thing to do, uninviting the mayor, but I also think there's no excuse for union workers, particularly public sector employees, to be working without a contract," Walsh said.

Richard Stutman, president of the Boston Teachers Union (BTU), said his union, also without a contract was "not in favor" of the labor council's decision, but, "We did agree to abide by the majority vote."

"We're all one big city union, in a manner of speaking," Stutman said.

Stutman attended the Mildred Avenue Middle School opening Tuesday with Menino, but said the two did not discuss the breakfast.

"It really has been a non-issue," Stutman said. "The papers make it an issue; it's not a big issue with us."

He added that he had "zero interest in waiting until July to settle a contract" and said representatives from the union and the city were in negotiations "almost every day."

State Senator Jack Hart, who chairs the joint committee on commerce and labor, said he was conflicted, but chose to attend.

"I was kind of obligated, from my perspective, to go because I've had a working relationship with these people for some time now," Hart said, citing his committee post as a strong motivation. "[Menino's exclusion is] not something that I personally am pleased about seeing."

Joseph Nigro, general agent for the Boston Building Trades Council, said several unions boycotted the breakfast because they felt municipal unions are holding Menino as a political hostage while the city scrambles for funds.

"Most of us paid for our table, but we decided not to attend because of the whack that they took at the mayor," Nigro said. "There's not a city or town in the state that is not going through the same thing as the City of Boston is. The revenue is not there."

Another local labor leader, who requested anonymity, said he and his members attended the breakfast, but with reservations.

"The guy's been good to us, but I don't work for him," the source said. "I don't have to negotiate a contract with him, so I don't know him in that respect. I know the municipal unions who deal with him that way have a tough time."

"I don't want to do that to Menino, because the guy's been good to us. But I've been where Tom Nee is, and it's no fun working without a contract."

Walsh said he has noticed a growing divide between public and private unions, with some private unions favoring the mayor above the municipal unions.

"Tom Nee and I get along, but we don't see eye-to-eye on that one," Nigro said, adding that he and Nee hadn't discussed the breakfast issue since the vote was taken. "Trying to embarrass the mayor is not a solution."

Most labor leaders were choosing their words carefully this week, few of them wanting to appear antagonistic to either side.

"It was a decision because we were supporting the patrolmen, because they supported us the last time we had contract negotiations," said Nick DiMarino, president of Boston Firefighters Local 718. DiMarino said he had "no opinion personally" about whether or not Menino should attend the breakfast.

He noted that his union has been working without a contract since July 1, but hadn't been as vocal about disagreeing with City Hall tactics.

"We've only been without a contract for a month, we haven't sat down with the city yet, we couldn't make a decision right now on whether we'd picket or not," DiMarino said.

Bob Haynes, president of the Massachusetts AFL-CIO, the umbrella group of the state's labor movement, said he attended a cancer benefit in Worcester, as he usually does, and refused to take sides.

"I don't have any position. I am working with the mayor and local unions to sit down and work out a contract," Haynes said.

Feeney's diagnosis of the situation as "uncomfortable" was met with agreement from the unions and the politicians, and City Council President Michael Flaherty said it represented a dilemma elected officials face: support the unions seeking work, or help neighborhoods control neighborhood development.

Flaherty, who did not attend the breakfast, intervened last month when Local 369 Utility Workers Union picketed a Feeney fundraiser and leafleted the councilwoman's neighborhood. But he said that dispute differed from the labor breakfast controversy because Feeney was blocking a private company from relocating to Neponset Circle, whereas Menino and municipal unions are haggling over contracts.

"Unfortunately, the Labor Day breakfast turned into political football, pitting good friends of labor against good friends of labor," said Flaherty. "I'm cognizant that were a couple dozen bargaining units awaiting contracts, but to interject that situation into the breakfast was inappropriate. I want all city workers to have contracts and I'm confident that that will happen, but unfortunately not fast enough for some."

Others see fault lines in the traditionally unified constellation of labor unions and the solidly Democratic Boston politicians: divisions between elected officials and dissatisfied union members and fissures between trade unions and municipal unions. Several Democratic insiders point to the party's inability to capture the governor's office, with four consecutive Republican governors dating back to 1991, as an indication that the reliable alliance no longer carries such electoral muscle.

"The labor movement shouldn't force Democrats to take sides against Democrats," Walsh said, adding that he thinks "elected officials are being kind of assaulted, to some degree."

"Some of the elected officials that they're targeting have been friends to organized labor over the years," he said.

"It's been bubbling up for a long time," Walsh said of the recent conflict, citing a slowed economy that makes projects more scarce and income harder to find. "There are bigger underlying issues that have to be addressed, and I don't know when those things are going to be addressed."

"It's still a solid coalition," insisted Nigro. "We have no animosity toward [the unions who voted to disinvite Menino], you just have to look at the big picture, and I don't think they looked at the big picture."