In the field of American organized labor, very few groups can call themselves peers of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), whose 2 million-odd members populate the government, maintenance and healthcare sectors. With massive (and growing, the SEIU claims) membership comes tons of money and lots of power, much of it at the whim of a small number of elected leaders. Here are the biggest individual players in the SEIU, one of America’s most powerful labor unions.
Mary Kay Henry, International President
A lifelong organizer and staffer for the SEIU, Mary Kay Henry was elected in 2010 as international president, the first woman to command the union’s highest office. Henry has overseen huge shifts at the purple palace (SEIU-speak for the union’s headquarters in Dupont Circle) and throughout SEIU’s many powerful locals, where she and other leaders have led a years-long fight to establish central control and turn the union’s focus to politics. Henry has also been instrumental in backing the “Fight for $15” campaign and SEIU’s (so far unsuccessful) efforts to organize fast-food workers.
Gerry Hudson, Secretary-Treasurer
While Henry has spent her life as a professional organizer, Gerry Hudson started out in SEIU’s rank and file — rising from working at a senior home to the No. 2 position in one of the country’s most powerful unions. Hudson’s path is an especially interesting one, not only as a rank-and-file member turned international leader, but as a decades-long Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) member now near the top of a major Democratic power center. Hudson was a member of the DSA from the organization’s founding, and also worked on the insurgent presidential campaign of Jesse Jackson. A former executive vice president of SEIU1199 (one of SEIU’s “Big 3” locals) and political director for the New York State Democratic Party, Hudson is a multifaceted union leader.
Dave Regan and Steve Trossman, President and Spokesman at SEIU-UHW
As president of SEIU United Healthcare Workers West (UHW), Dave Regan leads some 100,000 workers in California’s hospitals and beyond. But Regan is not just a labor leader — he has led his union, with the help of people like chief spokesman Steve Trossman, into what might be the political future of big labor. UHW has become a major political player in California politics and beyond, spending big money on both campaigns and new ventures like the Fairness Project, where Trossman is chairman of the board. The brainchild of Regan and Trossman, Fairness Project has shepherded ballot measures to victory in dozens of states, including those for higher wages, Medicaid expansion, and other progressive policies, even in deep red territory like Idaho and Montana. Regan has also been at the center of major controversies at SEIU: He came to lead the union via trusteeship, a divisive process whereby SEIU takes top-down control of a local, and in 2019, Regan and the union settled a sexual harassment lawsuit involving Regan, his deputies and leadership at the purple palace.
April Verrett, President, SEIU 2015
When SEIU took control of UHW in 2009, the union had nearly 150,000 members working in California’s healthcare sector. But looking to consolidate all of the state’s long-term care workers into a single union, Henry and other leaders decided to slice off UHW’s 70,000 nursing home and long-term care workers and put them into a new mega-local, along with the former Local 521 and United Long Term Care Workers. April Verrett was a key player in that consolidation, and in in 2019, she was elected president. Verrett previously served as executive vice president of SEIU Healthcare Illinois and Indiana and then worked the same job at SEIU 2015. She now leads one of the nation’s largest healthcare unions, claiming a membership of more than 385,000 workers.
George Gresham, President, 1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East
For East Coast healthcare workers, the major player in the SEIU is 1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East, led by President George Gresham. Gresham rose to his role through the rank and file, getting a hospital job at a young age, and seeing the power of the union to change people’s lives. For Gresham, that meant helping to pay for his education, which sent him from janitorial work to the clinic as a radiology technologist. Gresham eventually joined the organizing team for his local and was elected president in 2007. SEIU1199 claims more than 450,000 members, making it both the nation’s largest healthcare union and a major political and organizing force. In 2019, Gresham was reelected to another three-year term.
Kyle Bragg, President, Local 32BJ
Upon his election to the presidency of Local 32BJ in 2019, Kyle Bragg was labeled by labor reporter Hamilton Nolan as “the most powerful union leader in New York.” Bragg heads a local of some 177,000 airport, maintenance, security and other workers from New England to Florida. Bragg has been involved with the SEIU his entire adult life; he organized his first strike at age 16. He came to the presidency after the death of longtime 32BJ leader Hector Figueroa, with whom he previously worked closely while serving as the union’s secretary-treasurer. Like Figueroa, Bragg has taken stances contrary to many progressive goals, supporting more centrist Democratic politicians, as well as Amazon’s (now canceled) plans to build a New York headquarters.
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