Bruce Raynor is the President of Workers United, an SEIU affiliated union representing 150,000 workers in the U.S., Puerto Rico and Canada who work in the laundry, food service, hospitality, gaming, apparel, textile, retail, manufacturing and distribution industries. Described as a "rising star in the labor movement" (BusinessWeek, April 7, 2003), Raynor has distinguished himself as a creative, aggressive and strategic organizer with a broad understanding of the role of labor in North America. He is a pioneer in the area of comprehensive campaigns, starting with the campaign against textile giant J.P. Stevens early in his career.

Raynor has handled many key negotiations and has collective bargaining relationships with companies including Levi Strauss & Co., Liz Claiborne, T.J. Maxx/Marshall's, the Hartmarx Group, Xerox, Delaware North, Hilton, Starwood, and national food service and laundry industry employers such as Aramark, Compass and Sodexo. He has forged productive labor-management relationships in the apparel, textile, hotel, laundry and other industries which have contributed to improved wages and benefits and safer working conditions for working people across North America.

Raynor began his career in the education department of the former Textile Workers Union of America (TWUA) in 1973, where he worked on numerous southern organizing drives, including the successful J.P. Stevens campaign in the late 1970's. Based in Atlanta, he went on to organize tens of thousands of workers in the South, including nearly 1,000 Lichtenberg Curtain and Drapery workers in Georgia, 500 shirt workers in Crystal Springs, Mississippi, 3,200 Tultex workers in Martinsville, Virginia, and the giant Cannon Mills complex in Kannapolis, North Carolina. He eventually became the elected leader of 50,000 Southern clothing and textile workers.

He used a combination of aggressive rank and file organizing and alliances with civil rights and community leaders to build worker power. He was responsible for building the ACTWU's organizing program throughout the United States and Canada, and was subsequently elected to various leadership positions. He was elected Executive Vice President of the Amalgamated Clothing and Textile Workers Union (ACTWU) in 1993 and elected Executive Vice President of the Union of Needletrades, Industrial, and Textile Employees (UNITE) at its founding convention in 1995. Raynor was elected Secretary Treasurer of UNITE in 1999, and President in 2001 and was elected General President of UNITE HERE at the union's founding convention in July 2004. After 150,000 former UNITE and former HERE members voted to leave UNITE HERE, form Workers United, and affiliate with SEIU in early 2009, Raynor was elected President of Workers United.

Raynor has played an important role in extending health and pension benefits to low-wage workers. He is Chairman of several union-affiliated national pension and insurance funds. He is Chairman of the Board of Amalgamated Life Insurance Company, a union-affiliated insurance company established in 1943 which provides insurance services to Workers United and other union members. As Chairman of the Amalgamated Bank, the only union-owned bank in the U.S., with assets of more than $4.5 billion, and as former co-chair and current member of the Council of Institutional Investors, an organization of institutional investors that control $3 trillion in pension funds, he is a leader in corporate governance and capital strategies initiatives. Raynor is also President of The Sidney Hillman Foundation, a foundation that supports and rewards socially conscious journalism.

He is a member of Cornell University's Board of Trustees since 1988 and serves on the Advisory Board for the Cornell School of Industrial and Labor Relations. He graduated from Cornell's ILR School in 1972 and in 1999, received the ILR School's Groat Award for Distinguished Alumni.

Raynor lives in Nyack, New York, with his wife Joan. They have five children.

Blog Entries by Bruce Raynor

Upcoming HBO Documentary Views Economic Crisis Through a New Lens

Posted October 15, 2009 | 11:44 PM (EST)


In New York City, the garment industry has long been known as the "schmatta" trade. Schmatta is Yiddish for "rag", and that little piece of jargon speaks volumes about the history and traditions of the industry, New York City and working class people in this country. Even after 35 years...

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Say No to Backroom Deals and Payoffs - Let the Workers Vote

Posted October 5, 2009 | 11:41 AM (EST)


Dear Friend of Workers: Right now, the democratic vote of workers all over St. Louis is being overruled by a backroom deal orchestrated by UNITE HERE President John Wilhelm. Worse, a Local 74 official reported that Wilhelm offered him tens of thousands of dollars to hijack the Local and return...
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Crystal Lee Sutton, the Real "Norma Rae," Was a Fighter to the End

5 Comments | Posted September 14, 2009 | 02:05 PM (EST)


Our nation has lost a great hero and champion of working people. Crystal Lee Sutton was a courageous woman who stood up for herself and her coworkers under the most difficult circumstances. She was an inspiration to organizers in this union and beyond, particularly Southern women who went on to...

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An Open Letter to the Labor Movement Regarding UNITE HERE Conflict

2 Comments | Posted June 4, 2009 | 05:18 PM (EST)


To: The American Labor Movement

The conflict between UNITE HERE and Workers United/SEIU must end. All of the workers affected by this dispute deserve nothing less.

After months of negotiations and mediation with no real progress, a few weeks ago we put forward a comprehensive proposal that provides...

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What Your Boss Won't Tell You

Posted March 11, 2009 | 07:04 PM (EST)


Yesterday, the Employee Free Choice Act was introduced in the House and Senate. It's being supported by, among others, millions of American workers who would like a union - and with it a union contract. It's being opposed by CEOs who you can be sure all bargained...

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Union democracy, what's next for UNITE HERE

Posted March 2, 2009 | 06:04 PM (EST)


Many supporters in the progressive movement have been asking me "what's next for UNITE HERE?" Recently, I have learned that several UNITE HERE joint boards and locals representing more than 150,000 workers throughout the U.S. and Canada are planning on holding votes of rank and file leaders on the...

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The UNITE HERE Merger - A Missed Opportunity

Posted February 9, 2009 | 02:06 PM (EST)


You may have read about problems in our union, UNITE HERE, in the New York Times this weekend. As people who care about the labor movement, I think you deserve to hear what is going on directly from me.

By every measure, the 2004 merger of UNITE and HERE...

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In Praise of Canvassing: It's Not Too Late to Volunteer

Posted October 30, 2008 | 10:40 AM (EST)


When you wake up on November 5th, you may have a hangover. And that's o.k. Wake up with a hangover but don't wake up remorseful over what you could have done but didn't.

We are ahead in the polls but as a union leader who's seen many a National...

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The Meaning of Increasing the Minimum Wage

Posted July 24, 2008 | 02:18 PM (EST)


Today, more than two million American workers will get a raise.

The reason for the raise is that last year the minimum wage was increased from $5.15 to $7.25 in three steps over three years. The second step, from $5.85 to $6.55, goes into effect today. A year from...

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