Gwen Mills is the International Union President of UNITE HERE, a union that represents nearly 300,000 workers in hotels, casinos, food service, airports, and more across the U.S. and Canada. Mills is also a member of the AFL-CIO’s Executive Council. Mills became President of UNITE HERE in April 2024 and is the first woman to serve as President in the union’s history.
From 2017-2024, President Mills served as Secretary-Treasurer for UNITE HERE, leading the Union through some of its most tumultuous years and greatest triumphs. Under Mills’ stewardship, UNITE HERE was able to remain financially solvent after COVID-19 pandemic shutdowns devasted the hospitality industry, resulting in layoffs for 98% of the Union’s membership. Today, UNITE HERE is coming back stronger, winning historic gains in standard-setting contracts, and is one of the fastest growing unions in the American labor movement. Despite hardships, UNITE HERE organized 89,000 more workers into the Union since the pandemic first hit North America. As Secretary-Treasurer, Mills has worked tirelessly in the field to build more power for working people. She has partnered with UNITE HERE affiliates in key industrial fights that have won landmark gains for hospitality workers, co-leading the 2023 citywide casino strikes in Detroit and overseeing campaigns to support non-union hotel organizing in cities across the U.S.
President Mills’ leadership vision in labor is driven by years of experience working alongside ally organizations and other unions to build a bigger, stronger movement that can go beyond workplace issues to address broader racial and economic disparities. As such, President Mills has developed pathbreaking political and community organizing programs that have transformed communities and the American political landscape.
When 98% of UNITE HERE members were out of work at the peak of the pandemic, President Mills designed the most effective door-to-door canvassing operation in American politics to defeat Trump, extend relief for millions of unemployed Americans, and protect the labor movement from further attacks by Trump Republicans. Under President Mills’ leadership, hospitality workers led the way into the field to win victories in key swing states. In 2022, the Union once again led the nation’s most robust field program with 1,200 union canvassers knocking on 2.7 million doors in Nevada, Arizona, Pennsylvania, and Georgia. Electoral wins at the local, state and national level have led to relief for millions of workers hit hardest by the pandemic, legislation to improve and protect jobs in hospitality, and more union growth.
President Mills has consistently worked to promote union leadership among women, immigrants, Black workers, and people of color. As Secretary-Treasurer, Mills restructured the organization to be more equitable and reflective of the Union’s membership. She has worked to transform the culture of the union to foster women’s pathways to leadership, including the development of a comprehensive sexual harassment training that has been deployed with hundreds of staff and leaders across UNITE HERE’s International Union and affiliates.
Prior to her role as Secretary-Treasurer, Mills served as the Political Director of UNITE HERE’s International Union from 2015-2017, overseeing the union’s effort in Nevada to defeat Trump.
From 2000-2015, Gwen worked as a Community Organizer and Political Director for UNITE HERE affiliates in her hometown of New Haven, CT, where she built broad-based support for workers at Yale and across New Haven to overcome decades of strikes and struggle. During that time, Mills built a transformational program, paving the way for more than ten union members to get elected to New Haven City Council, a groundbreaking organizing victory for thousands of graduate workers at Yale, and the highest job standards in higher education anywhere in the nation.