[May 25, 2016] DETROIT – Union members re-elected Dave Regan as an International Vice President of the Service Employees International Union as part of SEIU International President Mary Kay Henry’s slate.

“As income inequality grows, working people and their families need unions more than ever, and I’m looking forward to working with the members and leaders of SEIU for the next four years to help millions of people improve their standard of living,” said Regan, president of SEIU-United Healthcare Workers West, after his re-election at the union’s quadrennial international convention.

As Vice President, Regan serves on the SEIU Executive Committee, which makes decisions on policy and strategy for the two million-member union. He also is a member of the executive board, of which he has been a member since 1996.

Regan is a leading proponent of using ballot initiatives to reduce economic inequality and improve the standard of living for workers and their families. In 2015, SEIU-UHW spearheaded a ballot initiative to raise California’s minimum wage to $15. The measure qualified for the ballot in March 2016, and a week later Gov. Jerry Brown credited the initiative for prompting him and the state legislature to pass a $15 minimum wage. In addition, Regan led SEIU-UHW to file an initiative to hold California hospital executives accountable to taxpayers by limiting their compensation to $450,000 a year. The initiative is in the process of qualifying for the Nov. 8, 2016 ballot.

 Regan is also a leader in seeking quality healthcare for all. He and SEIU-UHW are steering efforts to increase state funding for Medi-Cal, notably by supporting a federal civil rights complaint filed in 2015 that contends the state’s lack of funding for Medi-Cal violates the civil rights of more than seven million Latinos. He also led SEIU-UHW to become one of the most active organizations in the nation in signing up people for healthcare under the Affordable Care Act. Over the first two years of enrollment, SEIU-UHW signed up more than 20,000 Californians into Medi-Cal and Covered California.