Local 34, 1199 Endorse Harp

One of the season’s shortest campaign events — and one of the most significant so far — took place Tuesday afternoon on College Street.

There, on the steps outside the headquarters of Yale’s unions, UNITE HERE Local 34 and District 1199 SEIU endorsed the reelection of Mayor Toni Harp, who faces a Sept. 10 Democratic primary challenge from Justin Elicker.

The 3,500-member Local 34, which represents the university’s office and clerical and research workers, and blue-collar Local 35 are the most organized vote-pulling force in town. They helped elect the state’s last two governors. They have elected a majority of the Board of Alders since 2013. The mayoral primary will be an updated test of the union’s local vote-pulling strength.

The union’s endorsement of Harp was never really in doubt, especially after this July 17 event at which UNITE HERE-backed alders endorsed her. But Local 34’s executive board interviewed all the announced candidates, including unaffiliated hopefuls Wendy Hamilton and Urn Pendragon as well as Seth Poole, who failed to collect signatures to make the Nov. 5 ballot but does plan a write-in quest. (Local 35’s endorsement of Harp is expected in coming days, in conjunction with an endorsement from the Central Labor Council.)

Tuesday’s endorsement announcement lasted six minutes. Local 34 President Laurie Kennington emceed, and struck a theme that countered Elicker’s argument that downtown has boomed under Harp’s administration while lower-income neighborhoods have been neglected.

“She’s doing a fantastic job,” Kennington said of Harp. ​“She has stood by us in every union fight. She’s been a leader on issues that our poorest neighborhoods face.”

Business rep Ernest Pagan (pictured) of the local carpenters union — which announced its endorsement last Friday — spoke of growing up in public housing in West Rock — ​“a neighborhood where there was a 20-foot fence that divided the poor and the middle class.” One of Harp’s first major acts as mayor was having that decades-old fence between West Rock and Hamden torn down.

“She has fought over and over again for working people,” said Stephanie DeCeus (pictured) of District 1199 SEIU. ​“She pays attention to neighborhoods far from downtown.”

“All of you have taught me so much,” Harp said in thanking the unions for the endorsement.

She cited 1199’s ​“One Job” program, which she said ​“taught me about how many of their workers were working part-time jobs, sometimes two, sometimes, three just to make ends meet. You taught me how important it is to have one job to feed a family. It’s about economic justice.”

She said Local 34 showed her the need ​“to rise up to speak to power and demand from power what is right.”

Six minutes after it began, the gathering dispersed — and the troops got to work. Kennington directed people inside to pick up materials to ​“hit the doors” — identifying voters one by one in those neighborhoods and urging them to vote for Harp and union-backed alders. Kennington said that ​“hundreds” of her members are going door to door for the ticket, and that Local 34 will also donate money to the Harp campaign.