Rosanna Mendez, elected as SEIU Local 121RN’s Executive Director in January 2019, has spent more than 20 years in roles with increasing responsibility at various SEIU Locals and with the International Union.

As Chief of Staff for the Local from 2013 through 2018, Rosanna infused new energy into member leadership development, including strengthening the Local’s Steward recruitment and training program that ensures we have leaders in every hospital who are ready to create change. She worked to develop a strong “Nurse-Powered Politics” program, increasing member leaders’ capacity to inspire co-workers to stand up for themselves and the services they provided and to use their voice to win for RNs and their communities. She worked with Bargaining Teams who have used their contract negotiations to improve patient and Nurse safety, improve workplace protections and achieve higher wages and benefits. She has developed Union Rep/Organizers to serve as Chief Negotiators in these efforts to win strong contracts. Soon after arriving to the Local, she launched a robust organizing campaign to identify RNs in Southern California who needed a Union. With the Executive Director and Organizing Director, Rosanna provided guidance and support in these campaigns, which resulted in hundreds of RNs winning their Union with SEIU Local 121RN. Rosanna also implemented National Nurses Week celebratory events and initiated a strategic planning and goal-setting process at the Local, enabling staff and member leaders to increase Union strength and measure their successes with a focus on member priorities and value-added programs and campaigns for members.

Rosanna began her career in the labor movement as an employee and Organizing Committee member at the Chicago Children’s Museum (CCM). In 1999 at H.E.R.E., Local 814, her first campaign after the organizing drive as an employee at CCM, Rosanna learned how to identify and develop workplace leaders at the Fairmont Miramar Hotel in Santa Monica, CA. Having been through her own fight as a workplace leader at CCM, Rosanna got a chance to share what it was like to be in the thick of a serious “boss fight” in an extremely anti-Union workplace. She was able to connect to hotel and restaurant employees who were going through the same employer tactics and harassment she had experienced. Despite employer resistance, Rosanna mobilized 95% turnout in her assigned turf for her first hotel Union election campaign.

Later, Rosanna went to SEIU-UHW (United Healthcare Workers West; at that time, Local 399), where, in addition to her role as an Internal Organizer, she assisted in developing other Internal Organizers to build leadership among members.

From there, Rosanna traveled to SEIU Texas, Local 5, to serve as the Political Director in a “Right to Work” state. In that anti-worker environment, she facilitated a member-led campaign that resulted in unanimous support by city council members and county board of supervisors for legislation to legalize bargaining rights for San Antonio’s and Bexar County’s civilian workers. Rosanna also developed relationships with San Antonio’s police and firefighters Unions, as well as other labor partners and civic engagement organizations. She worked on voter registration and education programs with labor and community groups, as well as on citizenship workshops.

After five years building that program, she returned to SEIU-UHW. As Assistant Director of their Hospital Division, Rosanna oversaw 22 healthcare facilities in the Southern California Region, 15,000 members, and a combined team of 14 Internal Organizers and members on Union leave. Again, she used her passion and expertise to develop strong member leaders, representation, workplace activism and organizing. She also negotiated collective bargaining agreements and led and won employer-initiated decertification defense campaigns.

In 2011, Rosanna accepted the role of Deputy Chief of Staff at SEIU Local 721, where, in conjunction with the Chief of Staff, she was responsible for the day-to-day operations of a Local with over 250 staff and 85,000 members. As part of the senior leadership team, she helped create Union-wide field plans, political plans, and member leadership development. Rosanna directly oversaw all program departments at the Local, such as Communications, Research, Advocacy, Government Relations, Information Technology and Collective Bargaining. She also represented the Local throughout the country, was an integral part of planning for the Local’s Executive Board meetings and helped develop strategies for its internal field campaigns as well as coordinating external community-wide and state-wide campaigns with other labor and community groups.

Rosanna continues to emphasize empowerment of both staff and member leaders. She develops these leaders to strengthen and amplify the Local’s movement for improved patient care, Nurse and patient safety and a healthcare-for-all system that put patients before profits.