Since 2000, George Gresham has been the Secretary Treasurer of the 1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East, representing 300,000 healthcare workers throughout New York State, Massachusetts, Maryland and the District of Columbia. On June 15, 2007, he was sworn in as the new President of the Union.

1199SEIU members include professional, technical, clerical, service workers and registered nurses in hospitals and nursing homes; homecare workers; and employees of community health centers, retail drug stores and other health and human service facilities.

In January 2007, Mr. Gresham, together with 1199SEIU President Dennis Rivera, directed the successfully completed collective bargaining with the League of Voluntary Hospitals and Homes on behalf of 125,000 New York metropolitan area members at 87 institutions. The contract includes job security guarantees for every member—including part-time workers---hired before January 1, 2003, and a host of other employment security measures, including a pledge of a job within six months for any member who loses a job as a result of state-mandated hospital closing and downsizing. The contract also secures the health benefits including world-class comprehensive coverage with no out-of-pocket expenses, improves the pension benefits (already among the best in the country) and gives a three percent compounded annual wage through September 2011.

A member of the Union for 32 years, Mr. Gresham was Executive Vice President for Collective Bargaining prior to being elected Secretary Treasurer.

The grandson of a Virginia sharecropper, Mr. Gresham spent his early childhood in the segregated school system of the state. When his parents got jobs as live-in domestic help for a wealthy Long Island family, George was left with his grandparents until his parents could afford to bring him north. Eventually Mr. Gresham’s father became a trucker and eventually a member and activist in the Teamsters Union. The economic impact of a good Union job on the family’s living standards was not lost on George Gresham.

In 1975, at the age of 20, he went to work in the housekeeping department at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital in northern Manhattan. He soon moved up to become a clerk in the radiology department and then—through the Union’s Training and Upgrading Fund--studied to become an MRI Technologist. He had already been elected a Union Delegate. In 1988, he joined the Union staff as an Administrative Organizer, and was later elected as an 1199 Vice President.

As Secretary Treasurer today, he is in charge of overseeing the finances and the day-to- day organizational decisions. He has served at the forefront to successfully protect State funding for health care institutions to negotiating union contracts and defending the rights and interests of health care workers.

Mr. Gresham also serves on many Boards. He was appointed Vice President of the Executive Board of Service Employees Internal Union (SEIU) with 1.8 million working members in locals throughout the nation. He serves as trustee to the National Benefit Fund of Hospital and Health care Employees, the largest self-insured union healthcare plan in the nation. He is trustee of the Hospital League/1199 Training and Upgrading Fund, which has employer contributions and grant funding of over $150 million per year. He serves as trustee to the 1199/Employer Child Care Fund, which covers over 50,000 children of members. In addition, Mr. Gresham also serves as trustee to the 1199 Health Care Employees Pension Fund, which has nearly $8 billion in assets.

He is married and the proud father of three children. He lives in The Bronx, NY.

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