Gwen Mills is the Secretary-Treasurer of UNITE HERE, a union of hospitality workers that represents 250,000 workers in hotels, casinos, food service, airports, and more across the United States and Canada. Mills is also a member of the AFL-CIO’s Executive Council.
Since 2017, Mills has served as Secretary-Treasurer for UNITE HERE, leading the union through some of its most tumultuous years. Under Mills’ stewardship, UNITE HERE was able to remain financially solvent after COVID-19 pandemic shutdowns devastated the hospitality industry, resulting in layoffs for 98% of the union’s membership.
Today, UNITE HERE is coming back stronger, winning historic gains in standard-setting contracts, and the union is one of the fastest growing unions in the American labour movement. Despite hardships, UNITE HERE organized 35,000 new workers into the union since the pandemic first hit North America under Mills’ leadership.
As Secretary-Treasurer, Mills has modernized the union’s data management and IT support systems to enhance the union’s ability to campaign, grow and connect with its membership across the United States and Canada. Mills built brand new teams of support staff to provide training and hands-on help for users across our union to ensure greater access to new technologies. Additionally, Mills has led programs to empower and promote union leadership among women, immigrants, Black workers, and people of color, restructuring the organization to be more equitable and reflective of the union’s membership. Among these efforts is the creation of a comprehensive sexual harassment training for all UNITE HERE International union staff and elected leadership. The training has also been adopted and deployed with hundreds of staff and leaders at UNITE HERE affiliates.