Staff photo by C.B. Schmelter / Engineering Association/IFPTE Local 1937 President Gay Henson speaks to the media at Miller Park on Wednesday, June 17, 2020 in Chattanooga, Tenn. Members of the Engineering Association/IFPTE Local 1937 were protesting the announced layoffs of Tennessee Valley Authority IT workers.The president of an employees union in Chattanooga who helped convince former President Trump to get the Tennessee Valley Authority to reverse its outsourcing of information technology jobs last year has been elected to the No. 2 position in the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers.
Gay Henson, a health physicist at the Tennessee Valley Authority who is president of the Engineering Association/IFPTE Local 193, was recently elected as secretary-treasurer of the International union during the IFPTE annual convention. Henson, who joined the union in 1985 when she began her career and has served in union leadership posts since 2005, will remain as president of the IFPTE Local through February, in addition to her new job in Washington D.C.
“Having an up-from-the-ranks leader like Gay Henson, who has organized and rallied workers in the deep South and proven that she can take on the big bosses and win, adds great strength to the leadership team,” said Paul Shearon, who is retiring as IFPTE president.
Shearon is being succeeded by Matt Biggs, the union’s legislative director for the past 20 years who has also served as secretary-treasurer since 2018.
The International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers, sometimes referred to as the home of “the geeks of the labor movement,” counts engineers at Boeing and rocket scientists at NASA among its members. It is also one of the largest unions representing workers at the Tennessee Valley Authority.