It shoudn’t come as a shock—as one of New York City Mayor Bill De Blasio’s major backers during his campaign, UNITE-HERE has a lot of pull in New York—that the Marxist mayor of the Big Apple would appoint someone within the union’s ranks to high-profile position.
via New Yprk Times.
Mr. ]Thomas G.] Snyder, 62, whose role is to be announced on Monday, is a longtime labor organizer and liberal advocate who worked for many years under Mr. de Blasio’s cousin, John W. Wilhelm, at Unite Here, the powerful hotel and restaurant workers’ union that Mr. Wilhelm once led.
[snip]
This will be Mr. Snyder’s first job in New York City government, and, aside from a stint in a Columbia University doctoral program in the 1970s, his first time living in the city.
“In my view, he is one of a handful of major elected leaders in the country who isn’t afraid to fight for progressive values, and that’s what I’ve spent most of my life doing,” Mr. Snyder said. “I think we fit together very well in that respect.”
Mr. Snyder, who grew up in Flint, Mich., is leaving a job at Unite Here focused on international unions; previously, he was the organization’s national political director, with an expertise in campaigning for immigrant workers’ rights. [Emphasis added.]
Of course, it may also just be a coincidence that the former head of UNITE-HERE, John Wilhelm, is Mayor De Blasio’s cousin.
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