He was elected to succeed Gerald W. McEntee as President of the 1.6 million-member American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), one of the largest and most politically active unions in the AFL-CIO,[1] on June 21, 2012, during the union's 40th International Convention in Los Angeles.

[3] The son of a city bus driver, Saunders grew up in a union household in Cleveland, Ohio.

He served as administrator of a number of AFSCME councils across the country, including AFSCME District Council 37, New York's largest public employee union, representing 125,000 members.

Saunders serves as a vice president of the AFL-CIO Executive Council and was named chair of the labor federation's Political Committee on August 1, 2012.

[4] He is an at-large member of the Democratic Party (United States) National Committee, treasurer of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights[5] and president of Working America.