By jonetta rose barras Examiner Columnist There’s been a lot of chatter about union endorsements of political candidates: Ward 1 D.C. Councilman Jim Graham got the nod from the Metro transit workers union. At-large Councilmember Kwame Brown, who is hoping to become the legislature’s chairman, won support from the service workers union (SEIU), which has nearly 45,000 members in Maryland and the District.
“Brown helped boost wages for the men and women who work hard to keep District buildings and tenants safe,” said Jaime Contreras, state council president and Local 32BJ capital area director. “We are confident that as chairman he’ll help fix a broken system that failed to protect workers and taxpayers from negligent contractors.”
Council Chairman Vincent C. Gray, who wants to be the next mayor, won endorsements of the Metropolitan Washington Council of the AFL-CIO, which has 150,000 members in the region, and the American Federation of Government Employees, whose 600,000 members are mostly federal workers.
“The endorsement of the AFGE sends a clear signal that it is time for a change in leadership in D.C. Our federal and District employees are the backbone of our great city, and they deserve a mayor who will stand up for their interests,” Gray said.
Folks, this isn’t Chicago or New York, where labor groups have muscles and aren’t afraid to use them. This is the District.
Get a grip.
The union label doesn’t always spell victory. Yes, endorsements bring bodies: people to canvass neighborhoods, staff telephone banks and work polling places on Election Day. But reports of unions’ power and influence in the District have been greatly exaggerated.
After all, Mayor Adrian M. Fenty won his election in 2006 with minimal help from labor. Unions loaded up his rival, Council Chairman Linda Cropp, with endorsements and money; she’s now in retirement.
How did myth become reality, prompting politicians to genuflect before unions’ executive committees pleading for their endorsements?
Once upon a time, unions knew how to throw their weight around. A labor uprising was something to fear; elected officials halted plans considered injurious to workers even at the cost of a more efficient and effective government.
In 1980s, Mayor Marion Barry ditched a plan to cut thousands of jobs from the bureaucracy. Instead, he grew the government. In 1990, Mayor Sharon Pratt Kelly carried a broom and promised to clean house. She never did.
By 1998, when Anthony A. Williams arrived, unions were issuing wolf tickets: talking loud but not delivering. Still, he promised them, he would never again fire workers as he did when he was chief financial officer. That pledge handicapped Williams’ reform efforts.
Fenty, the youngest and least experienced of the city’s executives, has been the only person to honor the decades-old pledge of reducing the size and cost of the bureaucracy. He has produced a leaner government, cutting more than 2,000 positions and individuals from the payroll.
So, don’t expect him to get much union love.
jonetta rose barras can be reached at [email protected].
