George Gresham, a hospital custodian who became a significant political force as the longtime president of the largest health care workers union in the United States before being ousted in an election last year amid accusations of self-enrichment, died on May 8 in the Bronx. He was 71.<\/p>\n
His death, at a hospital, was confirmed by his sister, Davelin Gresham. She did not provide a cause.<\/p>\n
Local 1199 of the Service Employees International Union United Healthcare Workers East, which Mr. Gresham led from 2007 to 2025, said<\/a> his death followed \u201ca long illness.\u201d<\/p>\n During Mr. Gresham\u2019s six terms as president of Local 1199, its membership expanded to 450,000 from 300,000 health care workers along the East Coast. He held particular sway in Democratic Party politics in New York City and statewide, endorsing candidates and deploying a powerful get-out-the-vote operation.<\/p>\n After his death, Gov. Kathy Hochul of New York directed flags across the state to be flown at half-staff in his honor. In a statement<\/a>, she called Mr. Gresham a \u201clegendary labor leader who never stopped fighting for working people, communities of color and the dignity every New Yorker deserves.\u201d<\/p>\n Local 1199 established itself<\/a> as a political force in the late 1980s, helping elect David N. Dinkins<\/a> as New York City\u2019s first Black mayor. The union offered key early support to Democratic officials like Representative Nydia M. Velazquez, Senator Chuck Schumer and Mayor Bill de Blasio, but maintained good relationships with important Republicans, too. In 2007, when he took over as president from Dennis Rivera, Mr. Gresham cited the maxim, \u201cWe have no permanent friends; we have permanent interests.\u201d<\/p>\n In 2016, Andrew M. Cuomo, then the governor of New York and a close ally of Mr. Gresham\u2019s, listed<\/a> him among the leaders who had helped win the battle to increase New York\u2019s minimum wage to $15 an hour from $9. That year, City & State New York, a news organization, named Mr. Gresham<\/a> the most influential person in the Bronx, his longtime home, noting that there \u201cis no union in New York City or the state as powerful as 1199 SEIU.\u201d<\/p>\n As he rose through the ranks, Mr. Gresham held every elected position<\/a> in the union; stood at the forefront of a campaign to increase Medicaid funding for New York hospitals and nursing homes; improved staffing levels at health care facilities; and secured wage and benefit gains for workers, along with upgraded funding for continuing education, child care and retirement.<\/p>\n But he failed in his bid for a seventh term in May 2025, a month after a Politico investigation found<\/a> that he had used union funds to benefit himself, his family and political allies.<\/p>\n Among the payments he authorized, according to Politico, were a $50,000 \u201clegacy award\u201d for the Rev. Jesse Jackson<\/a>, a longtime ally who faced mounting medical bills; $60,000 to cover Mr. Gresham\u2019s daughter Siana\u2019s costs to serve as his caregiver on business trips; hundreds of thousands of dollars spent on events and concerts, ostensibly for get-out-the-vote purposes, that coincided with Gresham family reunions in a small town in Virginia; and hundreds of thousands paid yearly to the production company of a former union driver who held lavish rallies and parties for the union, and who several times hired Mr. Gresham\u2019s son, James, as a D.J.<\/p>\n Mr. Gresham, whose annual salary as president was $300,000, denied any wrongdoing, and a union spokesman said in a statement to Politico that the allegations of financial impropriety were \u201ccategorically false.\u201d An independent review of the union\u2019s finances has not been made public.<\/p>\n He was soundly defeated<\/a> by a top lieutenant, Yvonne Armstrong, whose spokeswoman accused Mr. Gresham of a \u201cpattern of financial misappropriation and lack of transparency.\u201d After becoming president, Ms. Armstrong vowed<\/a> to lead with \u201copenness, urgency and purpose.\u201d<\/p>\n George Kermit Gresham was born on Feb. 8, 1955, in Richmond, Va. A year later, his parents moved north, and George remained in Virginia with his grandparents, who were sharecroppers. His parents eventually found work with a family in Great Neck, N.Y., on Long Island \u2014 his father, David Gresham, as a butler and chauffeur, and his mother, Lucy (Whiting) Gresham, as a maid.<\/p>\n Later, his mother spent two decades as a home care aide, an issue that resonated with her son.<\/p>\n