The long-time incumbent president of 1199SEIU Healthcare Workers East was ousted in the union’s recent election. George Gresham lost his seat to challenger Yvonne Armstrong by a margin of 69 percent to 31 percent.
Along with Veronica Turner-Biggs, Armstrong led the “Members First Unity” slate of candidates running for positions throughout the union’s leadership structure. Turner-Biggs won her race for Secretary-Treasurer, beating out incumbent Milly Silva.
Results were tallied by the American Arbitration Association and were announced by the union’s Election Board this past Saturday. In addition to President and Secretary-Treasurer, offices up for election included area-specific posts.
The “Members First Unity” slate ran on a platform criticizing Gresham’s leadership, citing lavish expenses, pointing to his lack of action on understaffed departments, and raising concern about his health. Armstrong specifically argued for new leadership in order to defend healthcare jobs from action taken by the Trump administration.
Gresham has been the union’s president for nearly two decades. He ascended to a leadership role in the 1980s and 90s, alongside his mentor, Dennis Rivera (who served as President from 1989 to 2007). Leon Fink’s book “Upheaval in the Quiet Zone” provides a history of 1199SEIU from its inception, including details about Rivera and Gresham’s push to revitalize the union throughout the 2000s. Gresham was elected to the office of President in 2007.
After assuming the office of President, Gresham has run unopposed. The effort led by Turner-Biggs was the first time that a reform slate has organized opposition to incumbents since the Rivera era.
With Gresham leading the union, 1199SEIU Healthcare Workers East expanded its membership and grew its political footprint. The union is able to mobilize tens of thousands of members, and in recent years this political might has been used to lobby for more funding for New York State’s Medicaid Program.
However, critics have argued that Gresham has not been appropriately fulfilling his duties, and that the union has been weakened as a result. According to POLITICO, the union’s contract enforcement department, political department, and dues collection office are all severely understaffed. Gresham has so-far stalled the processes to fill these critical roles. He claims that the union is facing financial challenges and that it would be imprudent to fill these positions at this time.
Under Gresham’s leadership, the union has kept Carmen Perez on its payroll for years. Perez co-chaired the Women’s March on Washington in 2017 and is a friend of Gresham’s. According to multiple sources, she has not done any political work for the union but was paid a salary of $120,000 in 2024. Additionally, the union has been spending $300,000 annually to rent premier office space for the benefit of Gathering for Justice, a non-profit group founded by another close friend of Gresham. This expense was approved but the union’s executive committee in 2021 with the stated rationale that the work of the non-profit indirectly benefited the membership, but as the fight concerning un-filled staff positions has come to a head, members have questioned the wisdom of such an arrangement.
Expenses outside the scope of typical union activity have not been uncommon during Gresham’s tenure. For instance, he argued that due to personal health issues, he requires a caregiver in order to fulfill the responsibilities of his job. He contends that employing his daughter is the most cost-effective solution. She typically works for the Montefiore Health System. The union spent $60,000 dollars covering her traveling expenses while she traveled with him this past year. Additionally, for years a production company has received contracts from the union to run events, while also employing Gresham’s son as a DJ. POLITICO reported these stories.
In response to concerns raised about these payments, Bryn Lloyd-Bollard, a spokesperson for 1199 SEIU Healthcare Workers East, stated that the union is fully compliant with its reporting obligations. The Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act mandates that unions disclose their financial expenditures, and sets penalties for the misuse of unions funds. Andriana Vamvakas, a former regional director for the Office of Labor Management Standards (the agency responsible for enforcing this statute) cautions that these expenditures appear excessive and warrant scrutiny. She stated that they “raise red flags.”
In addition to the concern about certain expenditures, members of the 1199SEIU executive council have raised concern about Gresham’s job performance more broadly. They pointed to instances of him dozing off in Zoom meetings. POLITICO has obtained screenshots corroborating this account.
The opposition slate led by Armstrong and Turner-Biggs was organized by members of the executive council in response to these concerns. They claim that 85 percent of the executive council supported the opposition slate.
Responding to the sweeping loss, Gresham put out a statement Sunday, May 4. He wrote that when his term ends in June, he will “look forward to a new role in our great union – an active 1199 retiree.”
Members First Unity celebrated their victory, while also acknowledging that the election was hard-fought by both sides. In a post on Instagram, they wrote “now we move forward – not as slates, but as one union.”
The new leadership, led by Armstrong plans to take bold steps to realign the union’s finances over their first 100 days in office. Per the slate’s website, they aim to audit the organization’s books, set regular meetings to share updates with staff, embark on listening tours to hear from members in every region, and to ensure that the union is staffed appropriately. Notably, negotiations between union leadership and the 1199SEIU staff union were stalled under the leadership of Gresham. Armstrong has promised to settle the contract for in-house staff members. Their platform also highlights priorities for the near-future, including developing strategies in response to AI and automation in healthcare, bolstering the union’s ability to protect the scope of bargaining units, establishing a grievance tracking system and taking a more active role standing up to elected officials as the “conscience of the labor movement.”
This election marks a notable turning point for 1199SEIU. It’s not everyday that unions of this size see truly competitive leadership challenges. Looking ahead, the United Federation of Teachers is also facing an election with the potential for a serious challenge to the current leadership. Stay tuned for updates about this election as well.
