Andy Stern
Andy Stern
Andrew L. "Andy" Stern, is the former president of the Service Employees International Union. Stern is currently a senior fellow at Columbia University. Stern supports federal legislation to create universal health care, expansion of union ranks via the Employee Free Choice Act, more regulations on business, profit sharing for employees and higher taxes...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionBusiness Executive
Date of Birth22 November 1950
CityWest Orange, NJ
CountryUnited States of America
I'll never run for office. But I intend, either on the fiscal commission or on issues like immigration, to hopefully have my voice be heard.
I would say the issue for the labor movement in the United States is not structural... there is no correlation between the success of workers and how the labor movement is structured.
In 1972, I signed a union card for SEIU. And for the last 38 years, 14 as president, it's been my life. I've seen the most miraculous, spectacular things. But there's a time to learn, a time to lead and a time to leave.
It has no enforceable standards to stop a union from conspiring with employers to keep another stronger union out or from negotiating contracts with lower pay and standards that members of another union have spent a lifetime establishing.
I was too much of a victim of the model I created. I tried Change to Win and helping Obama, and then I just ran out of Andy Stern ideas.
Unions should not be lapdogs to a political party, they should be watchdogs for their members interests.
The union movement has been the best middle class job creating program that America has ever had, and it doesn't cost the government a dime.
Employers need to recognize that the world has changed and there are people who would like to help them provide solution in ways that are new, modern and that add value to companies.
College is about three things: homework, fun, and sleep...but you can only choose two.
How do we take the different assets that different unions bring to the table and use them strategically? American Unions, for example, have a disproportionate amount of resources, while other unions have political power, and if we think together we may be able to use the global economy to our advantage.
Today, we have made the decision to disaffiliate from the AFL-CIO. We believe in fundamental change, not incremental reform.
They've shown an incredible amount of courage, and I thought it was time to pass on the responsibility to other leaders in the union.
Our unions do a large amount of organizing in parts of the economy that historically and recently are places where people of color and immigrant workers have found jobs. Some of them are entry-level jobs. Throughout history immigrants have found work as janitors, and our unions have helped them raise families, send their kids to college, and that's been the American dream.