Despite its immense size and ubiquitous national presence, nearly half of the SEIU’s nearly 2 million members belong to just four local unions, whose members are mostly split between the East and West Coasts of the United States. Those locals are major political players both at the state and national level, wielding financial contributions, organizing and endorsements to advance their goals, protect their members and gain more power.
The largest of these “big four” is 1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East, which claims more than 450,000 members along the East Coast. Initially organized as an independent union of pharmacy workers in New York in 1932, 1199 joined up with the SEIU in 1998, eventually adding other, smaller unions to its ranks to achieve the mega-local status it enjoys today. The local is led by George Gresham, who started as a hospital housekeeper and worked his way up to the powerful union’s presidency. 1199 is a force in state politics, too, supporting allies and persuading enemies. The union, ostensibly progressive, has been known to endorse more centrist lawmakers, even many Republicans, as long as those officials commit to increasing wages and protecting member jobs.
Another of SEIU’s big four, Local 32BJ, is likewise infamous for its support of center-left New York politicians and policies that are anathema to the progressive left. In 2018, 32BJ (home to some 177,000 maintenance, public service and airport workers along the East Coast) left the Working Families Party in protest of the coalition’s endorsement of Cynthia Nixon over Andrew Cuomo for New York Governor. The union also supported the state’s doomed plan to bring in a new Amazon headquarters, expecting a huge boost in members. Famed labor heavy Hector Figueroa ran the local until his death in 2019, leading to the election of Kyle Bragg as president of 32BJ, one of the most influential positions in American unionism.
Another coveted labor post belongs to April Verrett, who leads SEIU 2015 in California, home to 180,000 long-term care workers throughout the state. Founded five years ago, 2015 is now the SEIU’s second-largest union, a feat they achieved by splitting from another mega-local and swallowing up several others.
The late 2000s and 2010s were a time of turmoil in many a major SEIU chapter, and the West Coast was not exempt. Through a process called trusteeship, the SEIU home base in Washington, D.C., took control of powerful unions across the country by dismissing leaders and shop stewards deemed corrupt or incompetent (or, according to labor journalist Steve Early, disloyal to central command). SEIU top brass then appointed new figureheads. One of these fresh faces was Dave Regan, who still serves as president of SEIU United Healthcare Workers West, or UHW, the local from which 2015 was split, and that then counted more than 150,000 members.
Seeking to unite all of California’s long-term care workers under a single banner, SEIU leadership—specifically, international president Mary Kay Henry, who was also involved in the “wrecking crew” that took over UHW in 2009—spun off tens of thousands of UHW workers into the newly formed Local 2015. Five years later, UHW’s numbers are respectable—around 100,000 members—but still a far cry from pre-2015. Despite the artificial losses (which some labor observers credit to a power struggle between Henry and Regan), UHW is as influential as ever, incubating the ballot-measure-championing Fairness Project and pushing for state-level healthcare reform.
With big unions, big controversy often follows. The big four mega-locals and their leaders have been accused of corruption, political malpractice and worse. For 1199 and 32BJ, supporting Governor Andrew Cuomo and, at times, his right-leaning Democratic and Republican allies, over more progressive challengers appears bafflingly conservative and narrow-minded. For UHW, leaders like Regan and Steve Trossman, one of his top deputies, appear to some unionists to have the opposite problem: being more focused on broad political issues than organizing new shops. Unions have always sought a middle ground between wider politics and advancing the interests of their members, two pursuits than often appear mutually exclusive. The union as a whole has also been rocked by a series of sexual harassment scandals and allegations, some of which involve Regan personally.
Regardless of their direction, so long as the big four locals remain, well, big, their leaders will continue to wield an immense amount of power and influence at home and beyond.
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