Mary Kay Henry

Mary Kay Henry  link C-SPAN Facebook Keywiki Twitter (Labor leader)
Born	1958 1958 Wayne County, Michigan, U.S.
Nationality	US
Alma mater	Michigan State University
Religion	Roman Catholic
Bilderberger labor leader. Supported coercing employees into taking the Covid jabs.

Mary Kay Henry is a US leader of organised labour. She became President of the Service Employees International Union in 2010, representing one of the nation's largest and most politically powerful labor unions with almost 1.9 million workers in over 100 occupations in the United States and Canada. Henry attended the Bilderberg for the first time in 2019 and again in 2022. She and her union supported coercing employees into taking the Covid jabs.

Education

She took a bachelor's degree from Michigan State University in 1979, majoring in urban planning and labor relations.

Career

Henry joined SEIU as a Union organizer in 1980. 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 resigned after his election as President of the AFL-CIO. Henry was elected President of SEIU by the international union's executive board on May 8, 2010. SEIU is focused on organizing workers in three sectors: healthcare (over half of members work in the healthcare field), including hospital, home care and nursing home workers; public services (government employees, including law enforcement); and property services (including janitors, security guards and food service workers).

Presidential elections

In July 2020, the Service Employees International Union announced that it will throw its grassroots organizing power behind presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential campaign.

In 2024, Henry said the union was spending heavily on the political elections — a sum likely to exceed $100 million.

Covid

On February 28, 2020, Henry released a statement "As the largest union of healthcare workers, SEIU is concerned that President Trump is jeopardizing the health and lives of millions of people by downplaying the severity of this coronavirus, COVID-19....The Trump administration must immediately reverse course and allow public health experts to lead on a nationally-coordinated response. It must make sure working people know the facts about prevention, have the equipment they need to keep themselves and their clients and patients safe, and it must stop filling Twitter and talk shows with dangerous distractions and misinformation."

When the Biden administration in September 2021 forced companies with more than 100 employees to require corona jabs or regular "testing", Henry said in a tweet that she was glad the mandate would require paid time off for workers to get "vaccinated". "Vaccines are the most effective way to protect essential workers — but workers need adequate paid time off, protective equipment, pandemic pay and equitable access," she wrote.

In January 2022, a statement said "SEIU members have strongly supported universal vaccination as a goal...and have applauded the Biden Administration's plan to get us there. The Supreme Court's action today in upholding universal vaccination for most health care workers is a relief for caregivers who have been at greatest risk of exposure to COVID and burnout during this pandemic – but it is not enough. In blocking the vaccine-or-test rule for large employers, the court has placed millions of other essential workers further at risk...

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. Her partner is Paula Macchell, a senior strategic organizer with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters.