Bio of Dennis Rivera

Chair, SEIU Healthcare

FOR BACKGROUND ONLY:

Dennis Rivera is the Chair of SEIU Healthcare, the healthcare division of Service Employees International Union (SEIU).  Launched in June, SEIU Healthcare unites over one million healthcare workers in an effort to provide the highest quality health care to every patient, heal our nation's broken healthcare system, and bring hope of better jobs and better lives to millions of caregivers throughout the U.S. Rivera is also the Chair of the Partnership for Quality Care (PQC), a new coalition of healthcare providers and healthcare workers committed to ensuring that affordable, comprehensive healthcare is available to every man, woman and child in America.  Modern Healthcare, the industry's foremost publication, recently ranked Dennis Rivera sixth on its list of the "100 Most Powerful People in Healthcare."

As President of 1199SEIU from 1989 to 2007, Rivera oversaw dramatic growth in union membership as well as national political strength.  Formed by New York City pharmacists in the early 1930's, 1199SEIU grew from a local union of 75,000 members to a multi-state union with 300,000 members throughout New York, Massachusetts, Maryland and DC, making it the largest union on the east coast.

1n 1996, Rivera oversaw the creation of the Healthcare Education Project partnership with the Greater New York Hospital Association.  To date, this joint effort has saved nearly $20 billion for New York's healthcare system.  He also helped to pioneer the Child Health Plus and Family Health Plus programs for healthcare coverage for New York's children and working poor.

During his service as President, Rivera's knowledge of hospital systems and his desire to improve the quality of patient care transformed the state of labor-management relationships in New York.  His innovative partnership approach with hospital providers resulted in increased funding for New York hospitals that often struggled financially and led to the expansion of education and training programs that currently serve approximately 40,000 healthcare workers each year.  
During this time, Rivera also co-chaired the National Benefit Fund of Hospital and Health Care Employees and the 1199SEIU Health Care Employees Pension Fund.  The National Benefit Fund is now the largest self-insured union healthcare plan in the nation with annual employer contributions reaching almost $1 billion.  It provides medical, hospitalization, surgical, dental, prescription, vision care, disability and death benefits for more than 500,000 members, dependents and retirees.  The 1199 Pension fund holds nearly $8 billion in assets.

With Rivera's guidance, 1199SEIU healthcare workers emerged on the national stage as a united, passionate voice for working families on a host of social issues, including healthcare access and affordability, economic justice, and immigration rights.  In 2005, the Union was the first local to call for an immediate withdrawal of troops in an effort to end to the Iraq War.  

Born in Aibonito, Puerto Rico, in 1950, Rivera attended the Colegio Universitario de Cayey, and then left school to become a fulltime union organizer of Puerto Rican hospital workers.  After moving to New York in 1977, he was hired as an organizer by what was then Local 1199, working in several of the city's healthcare facilities, including Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx.

Rivera holds a variety of posts in the national and New York labor movements and serves on the board of Riverkeeper and the Hispanic Education and Legal Fund.