SEIU President Mary Kay Henry to Retire, Capping 14-Year Run (1)

Service Employees International Union President Mary Kay Henry announced Tuesday she will not seek re-election at the group’s annual convention in May, leaving a gaping hole atop one of the nation’s most powerful labor unions.

Elected in 2010, Henry helped jump start the Fight for $15 movement, a coalition of SEIU-backed groups that began with a lofty minimum-wage demand that increasingly became the norm in US cities. Under her leadership, the union also represented scores of health and maintenance workers throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, focusing on contract workers at airports and home health aides.

“I’m in awe of the courage ...