Andy Stern

71
Andy Stern bigraphy, stories - American labor leader

Andy Stern : biography

22 November 1950 –

Andrew L. "Andy" Stern (born November 22, 1950), is the former president of the 2.2 million-member Service Employees International Union (SEIU), the fastest-growing union in the Americas. SEIU is the second largest union in the United States and Canada after the National Education Association.

U.S. Department of Labor 

Stern was elected in 1996 to succeed John Sweeney. He is currently a Senior Fellow at Columbia University.http://www4.gsb.columbia.edu/news/item/7224682/Andy+Stern+Named+Senior+Fellow+for+Richman+Center Stern is intent upon influencing federal legislation that helps revitalize the labor movement through universal health care, expanding union ranks via the Employee Free Choice Act, stronger regulations on business, profit sharing for employees, higher taxes, and efforts consistent with the improvement of the lives of workers.

For his talent at recruiting new members, Stern has been described as the "most important labor boss in America". Stern is unapologetic about targeting private equity firms, shaming business leaders, and competing to build SEIU’s membership: “We like to say: We use the power of persuasion first. If it doesn’t work, we try the persuasion of power”. The share of workers belonging to a union in 2008 showed the largest annual growth rate since the first report in 1983.

Growth in SEIU in 2008—88,926 members--accounted for nearly 21 percent of the national union membership growth. 

In March, 2010, Stern was the Alice B. Grant Labor Leader in Residence at the Cornell University School of Industrial and Labor Relations.

Controversy

Trusteeship of UHW west

On January 27, 2009, SEIU placed UHW West under trusteeship and dismissed 70 of the local’s executives, including president Sal Rosselli. Rosselli and other ousted leaders reformed under the National Union of Healthcare Workers and pushed for UHW West members at 60 facilities to vote to decertify SEIU. As of March 22, 2009, a total of 91,000 UHW West members (a majority of UHW West members) signed decertification petitions to leave SEIU and join NUHW. Stern and SEIU filed a lawsuit in mid-2009 alleging that UHW West and NUHW officials embezzled millions of dollars. The lawsuit ended on April 9, 2010 with a small award for SEIU, smaller than their legal costs.

Internet and new media

Stern has embraced political organizing via the Internet in the wake of the Howard Dean campaign, which his union endorsed. In fall of 2005, he launched an online contest called Since Sliced Bread that awarded $100,000 for the best new economic idea in America. Since 2005, Stern has been a contributing blogger at The Huffington Post and actively uses Twitter.

Stern has been a key figure in financing the online grassroots "netroots" community, along with Dean, George Soros, Simon Rosenberg, and Andrew S. Rappaport, to funnel a progressive agenda to liberal bloggers.

Through Stern’s initiative, a New Media team was formed at SEIU in the late summer of 2008. , was completely redesigned and relaunched shortly after. Traffic to SEIU’s website has since increased

by well over 100,000 visitors. 

Family

Stern is divorced from Jane Perkins, a former head of the environmental network Friends of the Earth. They had two children, Matt and Cassie. Cassie died in 2002.

Stern has a brother Ken a lawyer in Colorado, Tom a lawyer in North Carolina, a sister Ellen an attorney in Washington, D.C., and a sister Tricia a social worker in New Jersey. His mother Sue lives in Colorado.

Early life and career

He grew up Jewish and middle class in West Orange, N.J., where his father was a lawyer. Stern was a student leftist in the 1960s. He began college as a business major at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business but ultimately graduated in 1971 with a B.A. in education and urban planning.

In 1996, Stern was elected to the presidency of the union. After launching a national debate aimed at uniting the 9 out of 10 American workers who have no organization at work, SEIU, along with the Teamsters, announced on July 25, 2005 that they were disaffiliating from the AFL-CIO.