And now from the University of Chicago Institute of Politics, the Act Spiles, with your host, David Axelrod.

When you look at the changing face of America and the changing face of the American labor movement,

you need to look no further than the face of Mary Kay Henry, the president of the Service Employees Union,

the fastest growing union in America, almost 2 million members and counting.

I sat down with Mary Kay the other day at the IOP for a discussion about where we are in terms of wages, in terms of labor, in terms of politics,

and she was honest, candid, hopeful, and a little bit scary.

Mary Kay Henry, president of the SCIU, so happy to have you here at the IOP.

Glad to be here, David.

So looking across the table, the first thing that occurs to me is when you mention labor leaders to the average person,

they think of guys with 18-inch collars and big beefy hands, and that's not you.

But we love those guys.

Yes, I'm not demeaning them in any way.

Right, right, right.

But you're a route to this job is entirely different than the route that people traditionally think of as the path to being the leader of a labor union in a sense that reflects the changing nature of labor and the changing nature of the country.

So I think I could talk a little bit about who you are and how you got to this point, how you grew up, and what led you to join the labor movement.

Well, I think I got to this point because I believe and have experienced in the power of a group.

I was born as the third oldest in a family of 10 children.

In Detroit.

In Detroit.

I think that things that have influenced me the most are my family, my faith as a Catholic and the union.

Those three things have given me the experience of as the oldest sister having to round up my nine brothers and sisters and get them to the bus stop on time.

And fixed lunches make sure people had the right clothes.

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