Union at odds with Democratic Central Committee

Dispute over Wegmans spurs call for change in committee leadership

Democratic Central Committee Vice Chairman Arthur A. Turner Jr. sent a mass e-mail in September criticizing the union for its opposition. Chairman Terry Speigner allegedly helped with the e-mail.

The dispute is causing a rift between the committee – which handles political appointments, fundraising and other political functions in the Democrat-dominated county – and organized labor, a longtime ally of the party.

‘‘Both these gentlemen have damaged their ability to lead the party,” said Mark Federici, executive assistant to the president for the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 400, adding that he had heard about the upcoming vote. ‘‘We’d like the committee to work through this.”

UFCW official Anthony Perez filed a zoning appeal against Woodmore Town Center project in Landover, where Wegmans is planning to locate, stating that roads around the store were unable to handle future store traffic. The center is expected to open in spring 2009, and the grocer has been heralded by local leaders as a sign that upscale shopping stores are now starting to come to the county.

Wegmans was not named in the appeal, but many believed it was the target. County Council members overturned the appeal on Sept. 24, stating that the traffic concerns had been addressed a year ago.

‘‘I am disappointed to learn there is an attempt to slow down if not block Wegmans coming to Prince George’s County,” Turner told The Gazette in September. ‘‘I don’t know what that’s all about, but it stinks.”

As the appeal went before the county, Turner issued a mass e-mail excoriating the move and in particular Perez, the UFCW Local 400 government affairs specialist.

‘‘Why is Mr. Perez fighting against those who live, work, play and pray in our beloved Prince George’s County? Why is he acting to keep us in a subservient, second-class, substandard, marginal state?” Turner wrote in an e-mail sent Sept. 21. ‘‘ ... I am prayerful that his intentions are noble and just and not part of some less than honorable scheme.”

Turner declined to comment, and Speigner did not return calls to The Gazette.

‘‘Quite honestly, we were shocked and dismayed,” said Federici. ‘‘It’s hard to believe that anybody in the party would have such thoughts, or be bold enough to put them in an e-mail going to 500 people.”

On Oct. 15, officials for the Metropolitan Washington Council of the AFL-CIO, an umbrella group of 175 unions that includes the UFCW, sent a letter demanding an apology from the two men.

‘‘Labor unions have done more to create and expand the middle class in Prince George’s County than any other institution, not to mention our years of work to get Democrats elected to office,” AFL-CIO President Joslyn Williams wrote in a letter obtained by The Gazette. ‘‘I am saddened and dismayed you would help spread such anti-union sentiments.”

The next night, several union officials attended the central committee’s meeting, expressing outrage. At one point after the session ended, one AFL-CIO official declared that ‘‘a state of war exists” between the two groups, several attendees said.

Turner and Speigner issued an apology letter to the AFL-CIO, saying that they acted on their own, not as members of the central committee.

‘‘If we make a mistake from time to time, it is without malice and a consequence of being human, and thus, imperfect,” Speigner wrote in a letter dated to Oct. 15 to Williams.

Speigner also promised that the group would pass a resolution reminding members not to use their positions or titles without the consent of the committee.

But the chairman also rebuked the labor officials for their strong declarations.

‘‘We are on the same team and the same family,” he wrote. ‘‘ ... We are very fortunate that the local press was not at last night’s meeting.”

Federici said relations between the unions and central committee have since been ‘‘fractured.”

‘‘We’re disappointed,” he said.

The dispute has sparked discussions about changing leadership. According to central committee members, member James Allen introduced a motion to remove Speigner and Turner.

There are 24 members of the committee, who are elected by party voters. Under the group’s constitution, two-thirds of its 24 members must agree to summarily dismiss an officer.

E-mail Daniel Valentine at dvalentine@gazette.net.