One of Jeff Brown’s top union supporters unhappy with his critique of the union debate

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An early organized labor supporter of Jeff Brown’s Democratic bid for mayor of Philadelphia told more than 100 other labor unions he was troubled by Brown’s comments during a debate this week.

Wendell Young IV, president of United Food and Commercial Workers Local 1776, wrote Thursday night to the Philadelphia AFL-CIO union presidents that Brown was wrong to criticize unions representing teachers and workers in the building trades.

These comments, Young wrote, do not align with our view of how unionized workers can help build a better Philadelphia.

I want to be clear, we support ALL workers in ALL unions, we support them and always will, Young wrote to the AFL-CIO, which has more than 100 unions representing more than 150,000 members. We addressed this directly with Jeff and his campaign.

Brown ran a ShopRite supermarket chain with a unionized workforce, including members of the Youngs union, before running for mayor.

Young said Friday that he still supported the Browns campaign, but felt compelled to stand up for unions representing teachers and building trades workers.

READ MORE: Philadelphia mayoral race essentially a five-way tie, poll finds

Browns campaign spokesman Kyle Anderson said: Jeff agrees 100% with his friend Wendell Young’s statements about the importance of unions.

During a televised debate on Tuesday, Brown hit out at the Philadelphia Teachers’ Federation for supporting Helen Gym in the Democratic primary and the Philadelphia Building & Construction Trades Council for supporting Cherelle Parker.

He called them both regarding unions and claimed he didn’t want their mentions.

Both unions responded, saying Brown had requested but not received their approval.

Building trades leader Ryan Boyer, in a statement Thursday, called on all unions that supported Brown to rescind their support.

Jeff Brown has neither the governmental experience nor the moral fiber to be mayor of Philadelphia, Boyer said.

READ MORE: Who was the mystery ex-candidate who helped pro-Jeff Brown super PAC last summer?

Brown, who appears to be losing ground amid an ethics inquiry into a super PAC backing his campaign, tried to rally on Wednesday with a union event where he said, I sometimes put my foot in my mouth. At the event, Brown said he supports unions, including those representing teachers and building trades workers.

Young spoke at the Browns’ campaign kick-off event last November, saying no one is better suited to be mayor of Philadelphia.

On Friday, Young said Brown wasn’t the only mayoral candidate making missteps heading into the May 16 Democratic primary.

Philly is kind of famous for that, he said. We get a lot of top Democrats in what becomes a slugfest in the end.

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