Andy Stern

Andrew "Andy" L. 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 AFL-CIO, 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, he has publicly suggested his and other unions might split from the AFL-CIO if it fails to make major organizational changes, and is widely expected to support the anticipated candidacy of John L. Wilhelm, vice-president of UNITE HERE, for AFL-CIO president (challenging Sweeney) in 2005.

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,

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

External links

References

This biographical article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.

See also: Andy Stern, 1950, 1960s, 1973, 1980, 1996, 2004, 2005, AFL-CIO