Gerald W. "Jerry" McEntee is an American union activist. Since 1981, he has been the International President of the 1.4 million-member American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), one of the largest and most politically active unions in the AFL-CIO.[1] McEntee succeeded Jerry Wurf as AFSCME President, and was re-elected in June 2008 to another four-year term. (During the December 2011 meeting of the AFSCME executive board, he announced that he would not seek re-election in 2012.)[2]He is seen by some as the "power behind the throne" in John Sweeney's rise to power in the AFL-CIO, and his rivalry with Andy Stern of the SEIU is seen by some as one of the underlying themes in the break between that federation and the Change to Win Federation[3]
McEntee began his career as a labor leader in Pennsylvania in 1958 (his father was also an AFSCME official there) as an organizer in Philadelphia. He was elected Executive Director at the founding convention of AFSCME Council 13 in Pennsylvania in 1973 and an International Vice President of AFSCME in 1974. He holds a bachelor’s degree in economics from La Salle University in Philadelphia, and is a graduate of the Harvard Trade Union Program. A native of Philadelphia, McEntee and his wife Barbara live in Washington, D.C. He is a contributing writer for the Huffington Post. [4] He is a member of the Democratic Party (United States) National Committee and thus a "super delegate" in the Pennsylvania 2008 Democratic National Convention delegation.[5]
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