Already a top-ranking officer at the nation's largest and fastest growing union, Anna Burger was hailed by Gannett as arguably "the most influential women in the U.S. labor movement" following her recent reelection as Chair of the Change to Win Coalition, an innovative new alliance of major unions representing six million workers devoted to creating large scale and joint strategic organizing campaigns.

In the four years since Burger's election as Secretary-Treasurer of the Service Employees International Union, nearly half a million workers have joined with the 1.8 million members of SEIU. Focused on uniting workers in three sectors to improve their lives and the services they provide, SEIU is the largest health care union, including hospitals, nursing homes, and home care; the largest property services union, including building and security; and the second largest employee union. Today, SEIU represents nearly 900,000 nurses, doctors, and other caregivers.

In a dramatic departure from past practice in the labor movement, SEIU now spends half its annual budget to help more workers unite in the union, gain a voice on the job and improve our communities. By training thousands of member volunteers to help organize movement-oriented drives such as Justice for Janitors, building service workers nationwide are winning health care coverage, better pay and dignity in the workplace. And under SEIU's banner of Invisible No More, hundreds of thousands of home-care workers are earning living wages and paid time off.

Breaking with tradition is nothing new for Burger; in the 1980s as a young activist, she played a significant role in SEIU's recognition of women's choice as a key issue for health care workers. Throughout her career, she has worked to ensure SEIU's commitment to helping women, immigrants, and people of color move into leadership positions. SEIU is the most diverse union in America, with a leadership that reflects the strength of that diversity - over half of SEIU members are represented by local unions led by women or people of color.