Mary Kay Henry
Encyclopedia
Mary Kay Henry is an American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 labor union
Trade union
A trade union, trades union or labor union is an organization of workers that have banded together to achieve common goals such as better working conditions. The trade union, through its leadership, bargains with the employer on behalf of union members and negotiates labour contracts with...

 activist who was elected International President of the Service Employees International Union
Service Employees International Union
Service Employees International Union is a labor union representing about 1.8 million workers in over 100 occupations in the United States , and Canada...

 (SEIU) on May 8, 2010. She is the first woman to lead the union. While serving with the union in California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...

, she helped pioneer SEIU's use of card check agreements, non-traditional collective bargaining
Collective bargaining
Collective bargaining is a process of negotiations between employers and the representatives of a unit of employees aimed at reaching agreements that regulate working conditions...

 agreements, comprehensive campaign
Comprehensive campaign
A comprehensive campaign is labor union organizing or a collective bargaining campaign with a heavy focus on research, the use of community coalition-building, publicity and public pressure, political and regulatory pressure, and economic and legal pressure in addition to traditional organizing...

s, and system-wide health care organizing strategies.

Early life and union career

Henry was born in 1958 in a suburb of Detroit, Michigan
Detroit, Michigan
Detroit is the major city among the primary cultural, financial, and transportation centers in the Metro Detroit area, a region of 5.2 million people. As the seat of Wayne County, the city of Detroit is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan and serves as a major port on the Detroit River...

. Her father was a salesman and her mother was a teacher
Teacher
A teacher or schoolteacher is a person who provides education for pupils and students . The role of teacher is often formal and ongoing, carried out at a school or other place of formal education. In many countries, a person who wishes to become a teacher must first obtain specified professional...

, and both were devout Catholics.

Henry credits her faith with giving her an interest in social justice
Social justice
Social justice generally refers to the idea of creating a society or institution that is based on the principles of equality and solidarity, that understands and values human rights, and that recognizes the dignity of every human being. The term and modern concept of "social justice" was coined by...

 issues. The oldest girl in a family of 10 children, she attended Marian High School
Marian High School (Bloomfield Hills, Michigan)
Marian High School is a private, Roman Catholic high school for girls in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. It is located in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Detroit...

 in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan
Bloomfield Hills, Michigan
Bloomfield Hills is a city in Oakland County of the U.S. state of Michigan, northwest of downtown Detroit. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 3,869...

. She gained a favorable impression of labor unions from hearing and reading about the work of the United Auto Workers
United Auto Workers
The International Union, United Automobile, Aerospace and Agricultural Implement Workers of America, better known as the United Auto Workers , is a labor union which represents workers in the United States and Puerto Rico, and formerly in Canada. Founded as part of the Congress of Industrial...

 (UAW) in the heavily-unionized automotive industry
Automotive industry
The automotive industry designs, develops, manufactures, markets, and sells motor vehicles, and is one of the world's most important economic sectors by revenue....

. She worked in a local hospital
Hospital
A hospital is a health care institution providing patient treatment by specialized staff and equipment. Hospitals often, but not always, provide for inpatient care or longer-term patient stays....

 while in high school
High school
High school is a term used in parts of the English speaking world to describe institutions which provide all or part of secondary education. The term is often incorporated into the name of such institutions....

 to earn money.

In college, Henry initially wanted to become an urban planner
Urban planning
Urban planning incorporates areas such as economics, design, ecology, sociology, geography, law, political science, and statistics to guide and ensure the orderly development of settlements and communities....

. She continued to work in hospitals as an undergraduate student, and also as a medical assistant for the American Red Cross
American Red Cross
The American Red Cross , also known as the American National Red Cross, is a volunteer-led, humanitarian organization that provides emergency assistance, disaster relief and education inside the United States. It is the designated U.S...

. She earned her bachelor's degree
Bachelor's degree
A bachelor's degree is usually an academic degree awarded for an undergraduate course or major that generally lasts for three or four years, but can range anywhere from two to six years depending on the region of the world...

 from Michigan State University
Michigan State University
Michigan State University is a public research university in East Lansing, Michigan, USA. Founded in 1855, it was the pioneer land-grant institution and served as a model for future land-grant colleges in the United States under the 1862 Morrill Act.MSU pioneered the studies of packaging,...

 in 1979, majoring in urban planning
Urban planning
Urban planning incorporates areas such as economics, design, ecology, sociology, geography, law, political science, and statistics to guide and ensure the orderly development of settlements and communities....

 and labor relations
Labor relations
Industrial relations is a multidisciplinary field that studies the employment relationship. Industrial relations is increasingly being called employment relations because of the importance of non-industrial employment relationships. Many outsiders also equate industrial relations to labour relations...

. While in college, she was a volunteer lobbyist
Lobbying
Lobbying is the act of attempting to influence decisions made by officials in the government, most often legislators or members of regulatory agencies. Lobbying is done by various people or groups, from private-sector individuals or corporations, fellow legislators or government officials, or...

 for a grassroots
Grassroots
A grassroots movement is one driven by the politics of a community. The term implies that the creation of the movement and the group supporting it are natural and spontaneous, highlighting the differences between this and a movement that is orchestrated by traditional power structures...

 group, and worked alongside union lobbyists on various issues. Her first job out of college was with the American Foreign Service distributing food stamps
Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program
The United States Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program , historically and commonly known as the Food Stamp Program, is a federal-assistance program that provides assistance to low- and no-income people and families living in the U.S. Though the program is administered by the U.S. Department of...

 to the needy. When a member from the United Auto Workers
United Auto Workers
The International Union, United Automobile, Aerospace and Agricultural Implement Workers of America, better known as the United Auto Workers , is a labor union which represents workers in the United States and Puerto Rico, and formerly in Canada. Founded as part of the Congress of Industrial...

 suggested that the way to end hunger was to enable people to obtain well-paying jobs, Henry began considering union organizing.

Henry joined SEIU as a researcher
Union organizer
A union organizer is a specific type of trade union member or an appointed union official. A majority of unions appoint rather than elect their organizers....

 in 1980. She had a natural gift for organizing, later saying, "I was always asked to get everybody organized to get on the bus and to get everyone to the dinner table on time." Her experiences as a health care worker prompted her to work for a union that was involved in health care organizing. She joined SEIU because it was one of the few unions hiring women as organizers at the time.

During the 1980s, Henry held 18 jobs within the SEIU in California. She served as the San Francisco-area strike
Strike action
Strike action, also called labour strike, on strike, greve , or simply strike, is a work stoppage caused by the mass refusal of employees to work. A strike usually takes place in response to employee grievances. Strikes became important during the industrial revolution, when mass labour became...

 coordinator during a 1986 strike by more than 9,000 clerks, certified nursing assistants, and technicians against 14 Kaiser Permanente
Kaiser Permanente
Kaiser Permanente is an integrated managed care consortium, based in Oakland, California, United States, founded in 1945 by industrialist Henry J. Kaiser and physician Sidney Garfield...

 hospitals and health care facilities throughout California. She helped pioneer SEIU's use of card check agreements , non-traditional collective bargaining
Collective bargaining
Collective bargaining is a process of negotiations between employers and the representatives of a unit of employees aimed at reaching agreements that regulate working conditions...

 agreements, and system-wide health care organizing strategy.

In 1993, she was named director of the 475,000-member health care division of SEIU.

Henry was elected to SEIU's Executive Board in December 1995 after President John Sweeney
John Sweeney (labor leader)
John Joseph Sweeney was the president of the AFL-CIO from 1995 to 2009.-Early years:Born in The Bronx, New York, Sweeney is the son of Joseph and Agnes , both Irish immigrants. The family moved to Yonkers in 1944, where Sweeney attended St. Barnabas Elementary School and graduated from Cardinal...

 resigned after his election as President of the AFL-CIO
AFL-CIO
The American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations, commonly AFL–CIO, is a national trade union center, the largest federation of unions in the United States, made up of 56 national and international unions, together representing more than 11 million workers...

. SEIU President Andrew Stern
Andy Stern
Andrew L. "Andy" Stern , is the former president of the 2.2 million-member Service Employees International Union , the fastest-growing union in the Americas. SEIU is the second largest union in the United States and Canada after the National Education Association.Stern was elected in 1996 to...

 named Henry his assistant for organizing in 1996.

Henry was named assistant to then-SEIU Executive Vice President Eliseo Medina
Eliseo Medina
Eliseo Vasquez Medina is a Mexican American labor union activist and leader, and advocate for immigration reform in the United States. From 1973 to 1978, he was a board member of the United Farm Workers...

 in 1998. She remained active in the union's health care organizing, however, representing SEIU in its talks in 1999 to secure a card check
Card check
Card check is a method for American employees to organize into a labor union in which a majority of employees in a bargaining unit sign authorization forms, or "cards," stating they wish to be represented by the union...

 agreement with the Catholic Healthcare West
Catholic Healthcare West
Catholic Healthcare West is a California-based not-for-profit public benefit corporation that operates hospitals in California, Arizona, and Nevada. As such, it is exempt from federal and state income taxes...

 hospital chain. More than 17,000 new members at 27 hospitals were organized under that agreement. She was also involved in SEIU's successful negotiations with Tenet Healthcare
Tenet Healthcare
Tenet Healthcare Corporation, an investor-owned health-care delivery systems company based in Dallas, Texas. THC owns and operates 49 acute-care hospitals in 11 states and 90 outpatient centers in 12 states, with a majority of these hospitals in California, Florida and Texas...

 for a card check agreement.

She was named SEIU's Southern California
Southern California
Southern California is a megaregion, or megapolitan area, in the southern area of the U.S. state of California. Large urban areas include Greater Los Angeles and Greater San Diego. The urban area stretches along the coast from Ventura through the Southland and Inland Empire to San Diego...

 organizing director in 2000, the international union's chief healthcare strategist in 2004, and elected an Executive Vice President of the union in 2004. Henry helped oversee what she said in 2005 was a $150 million organizing budget, which SEIU intended to use to organize more than 1 million additional nurses over the next decade. She helped negotiate a "no-raid agreement" between SEIU and the United American Nurses
United American Nurses
United American Nurses was an American union affiliated with the AFL-CIO.Founded in 1999, it only represented registered nurses...

 in 2006. In her first 25 years with SEIU, Henry played a major role in organizing drives at Beverly Enterprises, Catholic Health Care West, Tenet Healthcare, and HCA, Inc.
Hospital Corporation of America
Hospital Corporation of America is the largest private operator of health care facilities in the world, It is based in Nashville, Tennessee and is widely considered to be the single largest factor in making that city a hotspot for healthcare enterprise.-History:The founders of HCA include Jack C....

  Stern relied on her to coordinate and lead important legislative efforts. SEIU Executive Vice President Dennis Rivera
Dennis Rivera
Dennis Alexis Rivera Rodriguez is a Puerto Rican professional wrestler. He is one half of the first Undisputed Tag Team Champions in Puerto Rico, being recognized by both major promotions, the International Wrestling Association and World Wrestling Council, as champions during a single...

 took over Henry's healthcare organizing duties in early 2007.

Henry and Medina helped plan the breakup of SEIU United Healthcare Workers West
SEIU United Healthcare Workers West
The SEIU United Healthcare Workers West is a statewide local union of the Service Employees International Union in California in the United States. It has a membership of 150,000....

 (UHW-West), a 140,000-member SEIU local, and force half its membership into a new statewide local which SEIU claimed would have enhanced collective bargaining and lobbying power. UHW-West leaders balked at the plan, SEIU established a trusteeship over UHW-West, UHW-West leaders challenged the trusteeship and established an independent union (the National Union of Healthcare Workers, or NUHW), and the two unions began fighting over who would represent more than 100,000 employees in 350 bargaining units. Henry expressed strong anger at the move to create an independent union.

SEIU presidency

On April 13, 2010, several media sources reported that Stern would resign immediately as president of the union. Stern resigned on Thursday, April 15. Anna Burger
Anna Burger
Anna Burger, , was the Secretary-Treasurer of Service Employees International Union , and Chair of the Change to Win Federation....

, SEIU's Secretary-Treasurer and the Chair of the Change to Win Federation
Change to Win Federation
The Change to Win Federation is a coalition of American labor unions originally formed in 2005 as an alternative to the AFL-CIO. The coalition is associated with strong advocacy of the organizing model...

, was named SEIU's interim president, to serve for 30 days until the SEIU Executive Board could name a permanent successor. Burger was widely considered to be Stern's likely successor. Henry was considered a dark horse
Dark horse
Dark horse is a term used to describe a little-known person or thing that emerges to prominence, especially in a competition of some sort.-Origin:The term began as horse racing parlance...

 candidate, although likely to challenge Burger for the presidency. Several SEIU insiders urged Dennis Rivera to seek the presidency as well. Stern, however, publicly endorsed Burger for the position.

Support for Henry's candidacy swiftly grew. Within days of Stern's resignation announcement, four Executive Vice Presidents with the international union sent an e-mail announcing their support for her. "Mary Kay's greatest strength is her ability to build consensus and create a highly effective team around shared goals and responsibilities. Mary Kay is the type of leader who motivates rather than demands", the note said. The e-mail also cited the need "to return to organizing as our top priority" and "to restore our relationships with the rest of the union movement and our progressive allies." Twelve days after Stern's announcement, national media reported more local unions representing more than 60 percent of SEIU's 1.9 million members had agreed to support Henry's candidacy. Among the reasons why local union leaders backed Henry were the desire to have a fresh person in the leadership role, Henry was seen as a consensus builder, Burger was seen as too close to the authoritarian
Authoritarianism
Authoritarianism is a form of social organization characterized by submission to authority. It is usually opposed to individualism and democracy...

 Stern, and Henry was viewed as more focused on organizing new members (while Burger was seen as focused on SEIU's political activity).

National press reported that some local and regional SEIU leaders felt Henry would be less likely to continue Stern's local union merger program and more conciliatory to breakaway unions such as
those in California. But Burger's backers countered that Henry had never led a local union, had little on-the-ground organizing experience, and had associated with many SEIU staff and elected leaders tainted by recent scandals over financial impropriety. Despite these charges, several large union locals in California and New York backed Henry. Support for Henry also seemed to gain momentum when she told members of the international union's Executive Board that she favored letting local unions, not leaders based in Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....

, set the union's agenda. In a memo sent to SEIU leaders nationwide, Henry said, "Our local unions and divisions should drive our national priorities, not the other way around." On April 28, Burger withdrew as a candidate for the presidency. Burger said she would not resign as the union's Secretary-Treasurer, and endorsed Henry.

Mary Kay Henry was elected President of SEIU by the international union's Executive Board on May 8, 2010, to serve the two remaining years of Stern's term. Her term as President will expire in 2012. After her election, Henry said her major priorities as union president would be to advocate for labor rights
Labor rights
Labor rights or workers' rights are a group of legal rights and claimed human rights having to do with labor relations between workers and their employers, usually obtained under labor and employment law. In general, these rights' debates have to do with negotiating workers' pay, benefits, and safe...

, immigrants' rights
Immigration to the United States
Immigration to the United States has been a major source of population growth and cultural change throughout much of the history of the United States. The economic, social, and political aspects of immigration have caused controversy regarding ethnicity, economic benefits, jobs for non-immigrants,...

, and LGBT rights. However, she said she did not foresee bringing SEIU back into the AFL-CIO
AFL-CIO
The American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations, commonly AFL–CIO, is a national trade union center, the largest federation of unions in the United States, made up of 56 national and international unions, together representing more than 11 million workers...

 and refused to end the union's battles with its breakaway California locals. A few days after her election, Henry began conducting a review of the duties and assignments of SEIU's top leadership and staff (including Secretary-Treasurer Burger), noting, "It is the prerogative of the president to reassign responsibilities." Burger denied that she was thinking of quitting the union due to the review.

Personal life and honors

Henry is a lesbian
Lesbian
Lesbian is a term most widely used in the English language to describe sexual and romantic desire between females. The word may be used as a noun, to refer to women who identify themselves or who are characterized by others as having the primary attribute of female homosexuality, or as an...

, and co-founder of SEIU's Lavender Caucus, a gay and lesbian
LGBT
LGBT is an initialism that collectively refers to "lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender" people. In use since the 1990s, the term "LGBT" is an adaptation of the initialism "LGB", which itself started replacing the phrase "gay community" beginning in the mid-to-late 1980s, which many within the...

 group within the international union dedicated to improving rights for LGBTQ people within unions and at the workplace. She and her partner, Paula Macchello (a senior strategic organizer with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters
Teamsters
The International Brotherhood of Teamsters is a labor union in the United States and Canada. Formed in 1903 by the merger of several local and regional locals of teamsters, the union now represents a diverse membership of blue-collar and professional workers in both the public and private sectors....

), are both advocates for same-sex marriage
Same-sex marriage
Same-sex marriage is marriage between two persons of the same biological sex or social gender. Supporters of legal recognition for same-sex marriage typically refer to such recognition as marriage equality....

. She has discussed using her leadership position to advocate for LGBT rights.

She serves on the executive board
Board of directors
A board of directors is a body of elected or appointed members who jointly oversee the activities of a company or organization. Other names include board of governors, board of managers, board of regents, board of trustees, and board of visitors...

 of Families USA
Families USA
Families USA is an American non-profit consumer health-care advocacy organization. It was co-founded by attorney Ronald Pollack, its current executive director, and Philippe Villers, the organization's current President....

, a non-profit consumer health care advocacy organization. Henry formerly was a labor adviser to the Catholic Health Care and Work Subcommittee of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops
United States Conference of Catholic Bishops
The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops is the episcopal conference of the Catholic Church in the United States. Founded in 1966 as the joint National Conference of Catholic Bishops and United States Catholic Conference, it is composed of all active and retired members of the Catholic...

.Modern Healthcare
Modern Healthcare
Modern Healthcare is a weekly, 70,037-circulation business publication delivering news and information to executives in the healthcare industry...

magazine, an influential trade publication in the U.S. health care industry, named Henry as one of its "Top 25 Women in Healthcare" in 2009.

External links

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