Mary Kay Henry

Mary Kay Henry (born 1958) is an American labor union activist who was International President of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) from May 8, 2010 until her retirement on May 20, 2024. She was the first woman to lead the union. While serving with the union in California, she helped pioneer SEIU's use of card check agreements, non-traditional collective bargaining agreements, comprehensive campaigns, and system-wide health care organizing strategies. Henry was included on Times 100 Most Influential People of 2020.

Early life and education Henry was born in 1958 in a suburb of Detroit, Michigan. When a member from the United Auto Workers suggested that the way to end hunger was to enable people to obtain well-paying jobs, Henry began considering union organizing. She helped pioneer SEIU's use of card check agreements , non-traditional collective bargaining agreements, and system-wide health care organizing strategy.

Henry was elected to SEIU's executive board in December 1995 after President John Sweeney resigned after his election as President of the AFL-CIO. SEIU President Andrew Stern named Henry his assistant for organizing in 1996. More than 17,000 new members at 27 hospitals were organized under that agreement.

She was named SEIU's Southern California organizing director in 2000, 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 in 2006.

Henry and Medina helped plan the breakup of SEIU United Healthcare Workers West (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. Stern resigned on Thursday, April 15. Anna Burger, SEIU's Secretary-Treasurer and the Chair of the Change to Win Federation, was named SEIU's interim president, to serve for 30 days until the SEIU Executive Board could name a permanent successor. Henry was considered a dark horse candidate, although likely to challenge Burger for the presidency. 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. 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 Stern, and Henry was viewed as more focused on organizing new members (while Burger was seen as focused on SEIU's political activity). 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."

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 original term as president expired in 2012. Burger denied that she was thinking of quitting the union due to the review. In 2017 she was inducted into the Michigan Women's Hall of Fame.

Personal life Henry is a lesbian, and co-founder of SEIU's Lavender Caucus, a gay and lesbian group within the international union dedicated to improving rights for LGBTQ people within unions and at the workplace. She has discussed using her leadership position to advocate for LGBT rights. Henry used to be a labor adviser to the Catholic Health Care and Work Subcommittee of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. Modern Healthcare 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.