N.Y. Union Boss To Take National Post
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The politically powerful leader of the New York-based 1199 SEIU United Healthcare Workers East local will leave his post this spring to become chairman of a new million-member national health care union within the Service Employees International Union.
In his new post, Dennis Rivera will seek to influence the national debate on health care and potentially to bargain with national hospital and nursing home chains, union officials said.
“Of course we’ll miss Dennis’ day-to-day counsel, but he isn’t going far,” 1199 Secretary-Treasurer George Gresham said yesterday in a statement. “By building the national union of health care workers, he will in fact be giving all of us additional strength.”
Under 1199’s constitution, Mr. Gresham will assume the presidency of the local, which represents 300,000 workers in New York, Massachusetts, Maryland and Washington, D.C.
The new entity, SEIU Healthcare, will include 1199 as its largest component when it is launched this spring, union spokeswoman Jennifer Cunningham said.
Mr. Rivera, a former member of the Democratic National Committee, has long been one of the state’s most powerful labor leaders.
