The Democratic Party’s reliance on union labor complicated simple tasks such as printing business cards, frustrating staffers and leadership, according to hacked emails from the Democratic National Committee.
The emails reveal the unusual lengths that the party went to to appease its allies in organized labor, who have contributed more than $530,000 to the DNC in 2016. For example, the party once moved a breakfast meeting between then-DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz and the American Nurses Association, which endorsed her re-election campaign, because the original meeting site was non-union.
"Finance asked us to vet the Willard [Hotel] for a May breakfast for DWS [Wasserman Schultz]. The PAC's pass, but the hotel is not union," one staffer wrote.
"I just spoke to Alex and the W is a union hotel according to my handy dandy Unite Here [hotel workers union] App if we can walk 3 minutes to the w from the Willard that would be great," responded Raul Alvillar, who was then the DNC’s national political director.
The fundraiser was moved to the W. Hotel. It took place on May 12 after Wasserman Schultz received a crash course on the Zika virus to address her lack of policy knowledge.
Fulfilling union requirements did not always go smoothly. Luis Miranda, the party’s communications director, emailed staff in April because he had to wait a month to receive new business cards. Problems arose when he wanted to switch his Twitter username to @LuisMiranda—"the old one [@MiraLuisDC] is too messy," he wrote. Marketing department employees informed Miranda that the delay was caused by the party’s reliance on group orders necessary to qualify for bulk pricing.
"That's kind of ridiculous. Is that why I've been waiting for a month for business cards?" Miranda wrote in a Friday April 22 email.
Staff confirmed the new Twitter handle and said they would update the information. Miranda grew impatient, fearing he would have to travel to the White House Correspondent’s Dinner—a gathering of hundreds of journalists, politicians, and celebrities—without any business cards. He fired off an email to Deputy Director of Marketing Katja Greeson on Thursday, April 28, asking for a status update.
"Hi, we have a lot of events this weekend and really need the cards. Also for [Democratic Party spokeswoman] Shu-Yen Wei and [DNC strategist] Deshundra Jefferson. Can we please get them in tomorrow?" he wrote at 6:12 p.m.
Green responded within a half hour, telling Miranda that the party’s reliance on organized labor could prevent him from getting the cards since he waited until after business hours to notify her. She admitted that the DNC would have been able to fulfill the order more quickly if it used non-union labor.
"I sent a request for delivery date update to our printer but because we have to print union, I likely won't hear until their day starts again tomorrow," she said. "The order was placed for the set as soon as we got your approval on Monday so we are working to get these as quickly as possible, but because we print union unfortunately it does take longer than a non-union solution would. Believe me—it is equally as frustrating to us in most cases! I appreciate your patience."
Miranda said he would ditch the mandate for union labor and print the cards himself if the union shop failed to fill the order.
"If they can't deliver, we'll go to FedEx Kinkos for our comm staffers who need them for White House Correspondents Weekend events where they'll need to be able to network with dozens if not hundreds of reporters," he wrote Greeson at 6:39 p.m.
A follow-up email sent Friday morning assured Miranda that the cards would arrive that day. Neither Greeson nor Miranda responded to request for comment. They did they answer if Miranda ever received the business cards.
Wasserman Schultz announced she would resign on Sunday after the emails published on Wikileaks revealed that the party’s senior leadership brainstormed ways to undermine socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.) to help Hillary Clinton.