Andy Stern

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For other people with this name, see Andrew Stern.

Andrew L. "Andy" Stern (born 1950) is the president of the Service Employees International Union, the largest and fastest-growing union in the United States and Canada. Elected in 1996 to succeed John Sweeney, Stern has become known as something of a firebrand in the labor movement, adopting a strategy of aggressive organizing while sometimes vocally criticizing other union leaders and the AFL-CIO's organizing structure. One of the co-founders of the New Unity Partnership, Stern publicly suggested his and other unions would split from the AFL-CIO if it failed to make major organizational changes. On July 25, 2005 the SEIU, along with the Teamsters, announced that it was officially disaffiliating from the AFL-CIO. The two unions, and others, would form the Change to Win Federation.

Stern was widely expected to support the anticipated candidacy of John L. Wilhelm, vice-president of UNITE HERE, for AFL-CIO president (challenging Sweeney) in 2005; after the AFL-CIO split this came to nothing.

Born in West Orange, New Jersey, Stern was a student leftist in the 1960s. He earned a B.A. in education and urban planning from the University of Pennsylvania. Stern began his career as a social worker and SEIU member in 1973, eventually being elected president of his Pennsylvania local. In 1980, he was elected to the union's executive board, and in 1984 then-president Sweeney put him in charge of its organizing efforts.

Stern has also embraced political organizing via the Internet in the wake of the Howard Dean campaign, which his union endorsed; he has started his own blog as well as founding Purple Ocean, an online membership organization affiliated with the SEIU. In fall of 2005, he launched an online contest called Since Sliced Bread that claims to award $100,000 for the best new economic idea in America.

Since May 2005 he has been a contributing blogger at The Huffington Post.

On October 3, 2006, he appeared on The Colbert Report to promote his new book A Country That Works. On October 4 he appeared on Democracy Now! [1] to promote the same book.

Preceded by Richard Cordtz

President of the SEIU 1996-

Succeeded by Incumbent

[edit] External links

• Biography page from SEIU website
• BusinessWeek cover story on Stern's agenda for organized labor
• New York Times Magazine cover story on Stern, 30 January 2005
• Stern's Blog at the Huffington Post
• 60 Minutes Interview (May 14, 2006)
• A Country That Works: Getting America Back on Track

[edit] References

• Aaron Bernstein. "Can This Man Save Labor?" BusinessWeek. September 13, 2004. 80-88.