D.C.’s union bosses shifted their fight with Mayor Adrian Fenty to the Democratic National Convention, slamming the District’s chief executive as an anti-labor leader who ignores the plight of workers.
Full-color fliers being handed out in Denver condemn the “image-conscious Fenty” as a “budget-shattering, union-busting, promise-breaking political boss whose poor performance and bad management are costing DC taxpayers millions of dollars.”
The Metropolitan Washington Council AFL-CIO also chided the mayor for the “badly bungled” summer jobs program and castigated his administration for ignoring unions, the D.C. Council and community groups in policy decisions. The flier, which dubs Fenty the “un-reformer,” promises to “expose his anti-union, anti-democratic record whenever he campaigns around the country.”
Fenty’s “hostility to workers and unions is completely at odds with the Democratic Party’s long-standing commitment to these major constituency groups,” Joslyn N. Williams, metropolitan council president, said in a statement.
“The handouts from the union are consistent with the First Amendment,” Fenty responded in a statement. “Everyone has a right to their opinion.”
Fenty’s relationship with labor is in freefall. Union leaders claim he fires workers indiscriminately, backs anti-worker contracts and makes anti-union statements. American Prospect, for example, quoted Fenty telling a Denver audience just last weekend that teachers unions benefit most from policies that hurt children.
“The American Federation of Teachers, which I don’t think does anything for the people of the District of Columbia, is weighing in against it,” Fenty reportedly said during a pre-convention panel on education reform. “And the only thing I can think of is that the heads of the union, they want to keep their jobs.”
The Metropolitan Council endorsed Linda Cropp’s bid for mayor in 2006, though Fenty handily won without its support. He has endured several high-profile fights with labor since taking office.
Fenty fired six Child and Family Services Agency employees following the discovery of four dead girls in a Southeast rowhouse. He angered the police union by siding with the family of a boy killed in a shoot-out with a pair of off-duty cops. He backed D.C. Public Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee’s plan to cut staff and eliminate teacher seniority in return for higher pay. And he eliminated all 2009 funding for the Office of Labor-Management Programs.
