This is the next post in our series that will take a deeper look at each of our affiliates. The series will run weekly until we've covered all 65 of our affiliates. Next up is the Office and Professional Employees International Union (OPEIU).
Name of Union: Office and Professional Employees International Union
Mission: “To improve the lives of working families by bringing economic justice to the workplace and social justice to our communities. Acting as a strong and united voice in the workplace and in the communities in which we live, OPEIU seeks to bring the benefits of representation to all working people and their families.”
Current Leadership of Union: Tyler Turner serves as OPEIU president. Turner is the son of Becky Turner, OPEIU vice president emerita and former Local 277 president and business manager. Upon going to work in 2007 for Kaiser Permanente’s Consolidated Service Center in Fort Worth, Texas, Turner joined Local 277. Soon after becoming a member, he realized his passion for labor activism and went to work directly for the local as support staff. In 2011, Turner was promoted to business representative for Local 277 and began representing members working for American Income Life Insurance Company across the United States and New Zealand. That same year, he was elected to the Tarrant County Central Labor Council Executive Board as a member at large, where he served on various committees. Turner was later appointed to the Local 277 Executive Board as recording secretary. In 2013, he was promoted to senior business representative and elected as a District 8 vice president for the Texas AFL-CIO. He was elected president of Local 277 in 2017, and the following year was elected as a trustee for the Tarrant County Central Labor Council. He has served on the OPEIU Executive Board since 2019. He was named president of the international union in February 2025.
Mary Mahoney has served as secretary-treasurer since 2010. OPEIU has 17 vice presidents.
Number of Members: 94,000
Members Work As: Health care employees, including registered nurses and podiatrists, clerical workers, credit union employees, nonprofit employees, teachers, college and university employees, and helicopter pilots.
Industries Represented: OPEIU members work at credit unions, hospitals and medical clinics, insurance companies, higher education, nonprofits, transportation, shipping, utilities, hotels, administrative offices and more.
History: The American Federation of Labor granted the first clerical federal charter to Local 1 of the Stenographers, Typists, Bookkeepers and Assistants Union in Indianapolis, Indiana, in 1906. Membership grew slowly until the passage of the Wagner Act in 1935. The legislation granted collective bargaining rights to working people and propelled thousands of clerical employees to form dozens of unions. In 1936, Mollie Levitas called for a resolution recognizing an international union of office workers. Nine years later, the AFL granted a charter to the Office Employees International Union (OEIU), which had 22,000 members. In 1965, 10 years after the AFL merged with the Congress of Industrial Organizations, the OEIU rebranded as the Office and Professional Employees International Union. In the following decades, the union grew at a fast rate.
Current Campaigns/Community Efforts: The Rising Stars initiative seeks to create and network OPEIU youth programs across the country. The OPEIU Store sells merchandise branded with the union’s name and logo. OPEIU publishes OPEIU Connect magazine. OPEIU Justice for All provides resources to promote equality for all.
Learn More: Website, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, X, BlueSky, LinkedIn