“After a great amount of my own thought, hearing opinions from many of you, and holding them up against my own criteria–I recommend that Anna Burger not only temporarily–but then permanently–become the 10th President and first woman to lead our union.”
That’s what outgoing SEIU President Andy Stern requested in his April 16th letter to the International Executive Board of SEIU, as he named Anna Burger as his preferred successor.
But locals from New York, Los Angeles, Oregon, and Washington State, as well as Canada, all lined up behind Mary Kay Henry tonight to commit their votes. According to Politico’s Ben Smith,
“It’s done,” an SEIU insider emailed moments ago.
Tonight’s development comes only days after Anna Burger’s plea to the International Executive Board:
“During my 38 years in SEIU, I’ve held every position but one and now I’m asking for your support… to be the next International President.”
However, building tensions between locals across the country that saw Stern as a divisive figure, too politically entrenched and connected to the DC complex, have left the union itself divided. Some have seen Mary Kay Henry as a more uniting force that might break the national union away from the chains of the DC operations and bring the power of the locals back to the members again and keep the peace amongst other locals. Others (including me) speculate that she’ll infuse new life into those very DC operations and could possibly even accelerate some activities; she apparently has fewer enemies than Stern or Burger did. As Politico reports,
“One person familiar with the deliberations said the swing voters decided that Henry was closer to a consensus choice, as opposition to Burger had already begun to divide the union. If Burger was to win, they decided, she would have had to win cleanly, and it was already too late for that.”
But Henry is by no means devoid of enemies. She’s been a driving force between the very public and now famous SEIU-UHW battle, including her part in the union’s lawsuit against former leaders.
Mary Kay Henry’s history with SEIU began in 1979, as she rose through the ranks and became a leader and chief healthcare strategist, then was elected to the International Executive Board in 1996. Today, Henry serves as International Executive Vice President of SEIU, a step beneath Anna Burger. Henry’s efforts have been very focused in the health care sector and on building labor coalitions and partnerships with hospitals and health care facilities. That said, we can probably expect to see SEIU’s stronghold on this sector continue to grow stronger.
In addition to her posts at SEIU, Mary Kay Henry has also been a labor adviser to and member of the Subcommittee on Catholic Health Care of the U.S. Catholic Conference of Bishops, an organization that in itself has become a major political force, having brokered deals with the likes of Nancy Pelosi for crucial votes in the eleventh hour of major bills, most notably on health care reform. Additionally, she is a member of the executive board of Families USA, a left-leaning non-profit group that serves as a think-tank for most of SEIU’s and other progressive organizations’ research and reports to support universal health care.
While Anna Burger serves as International Secretary-Treasurer to SEIU, her future remains uncertain at this time. Perhaps she’ll become even closer to the White House, where I’m sure her friend Andy Stern will often be in his free time. I assume she’ll also remain at her post if she can swallow her pride long enough to accept a defeat that’s likely left her – and her ego – feeling blindsided. Even when she’s fighting for “the little guy”, she can hardly ever do so without forcefully creating different classes of people and driving a wedge between them. Even as she summed up her letter to the other SEIU International Executives last week, she wrote:
“I will do my best for the home care worker who loves grandmothers who aren’t their own; child care and school workers who hug kids long after their shift is done; hospital and health care workers caring for us against great odds; janitors who mop the floors of men who never look them in the eye; security guards who protect the skyscrapers of CEO’s that steal more in one minute than those workers make in a lifetime; public workers who keep us safe and provide a decent society but work for politicians who scapegoat and undermine what they do; and for all men and women who work hard, play by the rules and just want a shot at the dream of a better life.”
Typical rhetoric for the Queen of Labor. (And by that I meant Anna Burger, not Andy Stern). Even when in common company, divide the common man.
While Henry is known inside of SEIU and other labor groups, she’s not exactly a household name outside in political circles. So it remains to be seen how that will factor in as SEIU settles into external relations under her new leadership. Speaking from my own experience though, it’s often times the new blood that moves more quickly and easily to reach an organization’s objectives, since colleagues and working partners are usually more open to giving a new leader some time and breathing room while they prove themselves in their new position. President Obama is probably the best case in point. And just look at how much [damage] he’s done in less than two short years.
For now, we sit back, we wait, and we watch. Carefully.
* Author’s note: No, the “Stop” and “SEIU” signs were not photoshopped to appear in the photo as “Stop SEIU”. But don’t think for a moment I didn’t notice it…
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