Gov. Dannel P. Malloy has settled on a Fairfield County carpenters’ union official as his choice for labor commissioner, despite a push by another of his labor backers, the Service Employees International Union, for one its top executives.
Glenn Marshall, the president of Carpenters Local 210, which endorsed Malloy in April, is the governor’s choice from a field of candidates that included Kurt Westby, the state director of the SEIU affiliate, 32BJ, according to political sources.
In Marshall, whose appointment is expected to be made Wednesday, Malloy is selecting a down-state union leader he knows well over an executive from SEIU, a union that endorsed him in May and made more than $270,000 in independent expenditures on his behalf.
The labor job is one of special interest to the construction trades, who often look to the state for enforcement of labor laws and funding of training programs.
The Malloy administration declined to comment on the selection of Marshall, but one union leader said that the appointment of either Marshall or Westby would be welcomed by organized labor.
“Kurt and Glenn are pretty well-known in the labor movement,” said John Olsen, the president of the Connecticut AFL-CIO. “They are seasoned. They are tested. They have been around the block. They both have good political skills.”
Olsen, a former Democratic state chairman, said he was not informed by the Malloy administration if the governor had a made a choice. Both Marshall and Westby are on the executive board of the Connecticut AFL-CIO, which endorsed Malloy after he won the Democratic primary.
Marshall, who also is the district business manager for New England Regional Council of Carpenters and the treasurer of its political action committee, testified last year at the General Assembly in favor of legislation increasing fines on employers who misclassify employees as subcontractors to avoid paying workers’ compensation and unemployment compensation.
Gov. M. Jodi Rell signed the bill.
The carpenters’ PAC last year contributed $10,000 each to the campaigns of U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal and U.S. Reps. Joe Courtney, Chris Murphy and Rosa DeLauro and $8,000 to U.S. Rep. Jim Himes.
Marshall was at Murphy’s announcement last week for U.S. Senate.
He did not return a call seeking comment Monday.