Vice President Joe Biden, Attorney General Eric Holder and other top Obama officials have canceled plans to attend the U.S. Conference of Mayors meeting this weekend in  Providence. The reason: Providence firefighters plan to use the event to protest a long-running contract dispute with the city. The officials don't want to cross the firefighters' picket line.

Others opting out include HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan,  Commerce Secretary Gary Locke, Labor Secretary Hilda Solis, EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson and Senior White House Advisor Valerie Jarrett.

Rhode Islanders seem hopping mad that one of their most indulged public employee unions is trying to dim their capital city's moment in the sun as a negotiating tactic.  Mail to The Providence Journal is running more than 9 to 1 against the union, and callers into local talk radio are going nuts.

As ProJo Editorial Page Editor Robert Whitcomb notes in his New England blog:

The union doesn't want its members to pay a cent for health insurance and demands that the taxpayers continue to pay for all of it. And yet many taxpayers have no health insurance themselves, or if they do, pay huge premiums for it.

Rhode Island also has one of America's highest unemployment rates.

The union offered to call off the pickets if Providence Mayor David Cicilline stayed away from the conference he helped organize. The mayor declined to do so.

Cicilline has enjoyed a surge of support for his firm stand in contract negotiations. And although labor remains a potent political force in Rhode Island, Democrat Cicilline will be politically okay.  He's liberal, gay and half  Italian.

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