Two large labor union leaders leave DNC over disagreements

Two leaders of some of the largest labor unions in the country say they are leaving the Democratic National Committee (DNC), citing disagreements with the committee’s leadership over its future.

Randi Weingarten, the president of the American Federation of Teachers, wrote in a June 5 resignation letter to DNC Chair Ken Martin that she felt “out of step with the leadership you are forging.”  

“I do not want to be the one who keeps questioning why we are not enlarging our tent and actively trying to engage more and more of our communities,” Weingarten wrote in the letter, obtained by CBS News. 

Lee Saunders, the president of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), declined his nomination as a member of the DNC weeks ago in a letter to Martin, his union confirmed. Saunders said his decision was about the future for working people and the party. 

“These are new times. They demand new strategies, new thinking, and a renewed way of fighting for the values we hold dear. We must evolve to meet the urgency of this moment. This is not a time to close ranks or turn inward,” Saunders said in a statement. 

Their two unions represent a combined membership of just over 3 million. 

Their departures come after a different internal controversy was settled on activist David Hogg, whose election as a party vice chair was voided by a committee vote in June. Hogg decided he would exit his role rather than run in a redo of the DNC vice chair elections. 

The vote to hold new vice chair elections came amid internal disagreements over Hogg’s plans to back primary challenges against incumbent Democrats, though the challenge that led to the new contests was technically unrelated to Hogg’s controversies. 

Weingarten had been a DNC member since 2002, and a member of the Rules and Bylaws committee since 2009, but Martin took both her and Saunders off that committee and offered to let them remain as at-large members of the party. Both declined their nominations.

Both Saunders and Weingarten supported Wisconsin Democratic Party Chair Ben Wikler, and not Martin, in this year’s election for a new DNC chair. News of Saunders’ and Weingarten’s departures was first reported by The New York Times. 

A source close to the DNC, who was granted anonymity to talk about an internal issue, said that ever since “the horse [Weingarten] bet on in the Chairs race lost, she has always been on the other side of the fence as Ken– this is no surprise.”

In reaction to the departure of the two labor union leaders, DNC Labor Council Chair Stuart Applebaum defended Martin and said he understands “that workers are the backbone of the Democratic party.” 

“Martin is bringing new people into our tent, reasserting the strength of the Democratic Party, and is already winning races to make us competitive in every part of the country,” he said.