SEIU’s New President Should Be Asked about Liabilities, Change to Win Coalition

By Kevin Mooney

“Visionary, but divisive.”

That’s how The New York Times describes Andy Stern, the Service Employee International Union’s (SEIU) former president, in this profile piece about his successor Mary Kay Henry. She is ambitious to make her own mark in terms of organizing and politicking, according to the report. But Ms. Henry is also working to cut a distinct path and to reunite labor organizations that became split under Stern.

“Ms. Henry seems more eager than Mr. Stern to reach a settlement to end a bruising war with Unite Here, the union representing hotel and restaurant workers,” the report says. “The two unions have often sought to sabotage each other’s organizing drives.”

Although she has resisted the idea of rejoining the AFL-CIO, which the SEIU left in 2005, Ms. Henry has expressed interest in some form of reconciliation.

“It really isn’t about structure,” she is quoted as saying. “Most workers have had it with the direction of the economy and having to make ends meet with shrinking incomes, rising health costs and no retirement security. That’s where I want to put our attention as a movement. Not to how the deck chairs are arranged.”

But what about the union’s financial picture? Vinnie Vernuccio, an adjunct analyst with the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) and former Bush Labor Department official, has carefully documented the SEIU’s deteriorating financial position. Ms. Henry should be asked how she will address the organization’s rising liabilities.

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