Public Employee Press

Meet new AFSCME President Lee Saunders

Lee A. Saunders, the new president of AFSCME, DC 37's parent union, says the union is in his blood.

Indeed, the father of the new head of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees was a bus driver and member of the Amalgamated Transit Union in Cleveland, where Saunders grew up. His mother, a community activist, became a college professor and member of the American Association of University Professors after raising two sons.

Saunders quickly joined the Ohio Civil Service Employees Association when he started work at the Ohio Bureau of Employment Services in 1975.

Three years later, he started his career at AFSCME as a labor economist and served in the collective bargaining, organizing and field services departments. He later became the top assistant to long-time President Gerald W. McEntee and then secretary-treasurer.

"Lee is the person of vision and aggressive leader we need at the head of our union, especially in these perilous times when public employees and government services face the most vicious attack in our lifetime," said DC 37 Executive Director Lillian Roberts. "At DC 37, we feel a deep debt to him as he served as our administrator, setting us on the right course when we confronted a corruption scandal in the 1990s."

In the past two years, Saunders has been leading battles nationwide as AFSCME unions fight to survive budget cuts, layoffs and right-wing attacks on collective bargaining rights.

In 2011, AFSCME worked with an Ohio labor-community coalition that repealed an anti-union law in a referendum. An effort to recall Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, the architect of a law that canceled public employees' bargaining rights, failed, but the union did succeed in building a stronger progressive movement in the state.

"Wall Street and their allies are engaged in an all-out assault against our members and the services we provide," said Saunders, who was elected president June 22 at AFSCME's 40th convention with running mate Laura Reyes, the former president of United Domestic Workers Local 3930 in California. Saunders is the first African-American to head the 1.6 million-member union and Reyes is AFSCME's first woman secretary-treasurer.

On Aug. 1, AFL-CIO President Richard L. Trumka named Saunders to lead labor's effort to re-elect President Barack Obama as chair of the AFL-CIO Political Action Committee.

At AFSCME, Saunders enthusiastically promotes diversity and the union's Next Wave initiative, which is training a new generation of activists.

Saunders is treasurer of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, a board member of the National Action Network and a member of the Democratic National Committee.

Right after his election, Saunders established a pension task force to step up pressure to save retirement security for public employees threatened with cutbacks and indicated that organizing will be a top priority.

He resides in Washington with his wife Lynne; the couple has two sons, Lee Jr. and Ryan.

— Gregory N. Heires