Issued September 06, 2023
WASHINGTON – Service Employees International Union President Mary Kay Henry made the following statement:
“From healthcare workers in Los Angeles to airport workers in Dallas and janitors in Philadelphia, working people are rising up like never before to demand living wages, better benefits and safe working conditions. Today, we’re celebrating the Senate’s vote to reconfirm Gwynne Wilcox as a member of the National Labor Relations Board.
Ms. Wilcox’s tenure as a member of the board and her impressive career before that, including as a field attorney for the agency, has proven that she will protect the rights of working people enshrined in the National Labor Relations Act and will advance its core policy of encouraging the practice and procedure of collective bargaining. After Trump’s board appointees spent several years tearing down workers’ rights and abandoning the law’s commitment to collective bargaining, Ms. Wilcox and the other members of the new Biden board majority have worked to faithfully restore the act’s protections to working people.
When President Biden nominated her and the Senate confirmed her in 2021, she made history as the first Black woman to serve as a board member. Since then, Ms. Wilcox has continued to be a steadfast champion for working people of all backgrounds. We look forward to seeing the board hold union-busting corporations accountable and do more to ensure that every worker is protected by our nation’s labor law.”