South Florida labor leader Sherman Henry will join the faculty of University of Oregon Labor Education and Research Center (LERC) this September.
Formerly a custodian and rank-and-file union activist at Miami-Dade Public Schools, Henry became president of AFSCME Local 1184 in 1995. Local 1184 represents 9,000 school district support workers, including bus drivers, maintenance and food service, at the nation’s fourth-largest school system. Henry led the union for 21 years as full-time executive director, negotiating and administering contracts. Florida is a right-to-work state, but unlike most other Southern states, public employees there have the right to bargain collectively, though not to strike.
Henry was also treasurer and later co-chair of South Florida Jobs with Justice.
He has a bachelor’s degree from the AFL-CIO-affiliated National Labor College, and a master’s in adult education from Florida International University, where he also taught in the Center for Labor Research and Studies from 2011 to 2015. He is currently pursuing a doctorate from Grand Canyon University.
Henry is filling the position vacated by Helen Moss, who retires at the end of June. Like Moss, he will work out of LERC’s Portland campus at the UO White Stag building.
