BRUCE S. RAYNOR (BS ILR '72) has had a 40 plus year career as one of the most respected labor leaders in America. He served as International President of UNITE, the garment workers union, and UNITE HERE, the merger between the national garment union and the hotel and casino union. He served as the Vice President of the AFL-CIO and was a founding member of the Change To Win leadership council, a separate labor federation of some 6,000,000 workers.

Raynor was nationally recognized for his negotiating and organizing work with particular emphasis on the 20 years he headed his unions’ highly successful Southern organizing program. He forged mutually productive partnerships between large corporations and his union in the retail, clothing, textile, industrial laundry, and hotel and food service industries.

He served for 10 years as chairman of the 4.5 billion dollar Amalgamated Bank, the only union owned bank in America. He was also chairman of Amalgamated Life Insurance Company for fifteen years; a union owned insurance company, which has enjoyed an AM BEST “A” rating for the last 30 years.

Mr. Raynor has chaired numerous pension and health funds for his unions with over $3,000,000,000 in assets, including ten years as co-chair of The Council of Institutional Investors, a national coalition of public, Taft Hartley and corporate pension funds dedicated to governance issues. His final labor union position, after his union merged with SEIU in 2009, was as President of Workers United and Executive Vice President of SEIU. He is currently President Emeritus of Workers United, SEIU after stepping down in May, 2011.

Currently, Mr. Raynor advises national and international unions in the United States, Canada, Europe, Africa and Australia on capital strategies and organizing campaigns and works with financial organizations and some large corporations on labor friendly policies. He also works in the healthcare industry in New York State on forging productive union management relationships.

Mr. Raynor received the Groat award from Cornell as an outstanding ILR Alumni. He serves on the boards of numerous social justice and civil rights organizations and is President of The Sidney Hillman Foundation. The Amalgamated Clothing Workers created the foundation to honor their first President. This organization bestows prestigious awards for progressive journalism and has done so annually for 72 years in a major public program at the New York Times Theater as well as a highly regarded Canadian award given out in Toronto. He has received numerous labor, social justice and public policy awards and recognition. He served on the board of the TransAfrica Forum, a civil Rights organization dedicated to the interests of the African diaspora.

He has served on Cornell’s Board since 1988 as a Board-elected trustee from the field of labor in New York State.  He has served on the Committee on Land Grant and Statutory College Affairs from 1988 until 1994, and again from 1995 to 2004 when this committee became the Government Affairs Committee and still plays an active role on the committee.  He was also a member of the Investment Committee from 1989 until 2001.  He currently serves on the Industrial and Labor Relations College Advisory Council and has been a member since 1988.  He also serves on the Trustee Committee on Student Life.

Mr. Raynor lives in Valley Cottage, New York, with his wife, Joan Raynor.  His five children include Alvin Carter, Tara Carter, Kudjo Sogadzi, Candice Raynor and Robin Raynor.  Mr. Raynor's Cornell relatives include his brother Harris Raynor ('69 BS ILR), as well as nephew Derek Raynor (ILR '97). His youngest daughter Robin graduated in 2013 from the ILR School at Cornell and is an organizer for the Federation of State County Municipal Employees Union..