D.C.'s largest public-sector labor union endorsed Robert C. White Jr. for mayor, snubbing incumbent D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) just weeks after Bowser signed a new contract with the city’s workers.

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       The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) District Council 20 called White, an at-large council member who chairs a committee focused on government operations, “a consistent champion for our union members.”

       White said in a statement that he views the endorsement as a rebuke by the city’s workers of their boss, Bowser, who is seeking a third term. “Government employees are frustrated and worry that with a third term things get worse, not better. They are ready for new leadership,” he said.

       AFSCME, one of 15 unions representing workers across the city government’s many agencies, represents thousands of workers, including many in the city’s public schools.

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       White’s campaign manager, Luz Martinez, said that when the candidate met with union representatives as they researched their endorsement, the union workers shared the view that Bowser has appointed “loyalists” to run city agencies rather than choosing the most competent managers.

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       “The members that AFSCME represents are the people seeing firsthand how the mayor’s running the city,” Martinez said. “They want our agencies to work, and they’re feeling like she’s failed.”

       A spokesman for Bowser’s reelection campaign did not respond to a request for comment Friday morning.

       The city’s public-sector labor movement hasn’t backed a challenger to an incumbent mayor since 2010, when the Metropolitan Washington Labor Council threw the weight of its 150,000 union members behind Vincent C. Gray in his ultimately successful bid to unseat Adrian Fenty.

       Four years later, the Metropolitan Washington Labor Council expressed dissatisfaction with Gray but refrained from endorsing Bowser or any of Gray’s other challengers. Only after Bowser won the Democratic primary that year did AFSCME and the labor council endorse her in the 2014 general election.

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       The agreement that Bowser signed with AFSCME and other unions at a Wilson Building ceremony and reception last month includes a 2.5 percent raise next year for the 11,000 city workers covered by the agreement and 3 percent raises in each of the two following years. Flanked by council members and union leaders, Bowser was jovial at the time: “This is a good agreement, isn’t it?” she said, calling it “an exciting announcement" and singing the praises of union members’ hard work through the pandemic.