UNAC/UHCP Statement on the Retirements of AFSCME President Lee Saunders and Secretary-Treasurer Elissa McBride
On behalf of the 42,000 registered nurses and health care professionals of UNAC/UHCP, I want to express our profound gratitude and admiration for President Lee Saunders and Secretary-Treasurer Elissa McBride as they prepare to step down from their leadership roles this August.
Their retirements from AFSCME leadership mark the end of an extraordinary era, but your legacy of solidarity, courage, and unwavering commitment to working people will continue to inspire us for generations to come.
After the Janus v. AFSCME ruling, President Saunders didn’t waste any time. He set out across the country with a clear focus: grow our organizing strength and bring members into the center of the union’s work in every AFSCME affiliate. And when COVID-19 turned communities upside down, he lobbied for emergency relief through the American Rescue Plan, resources that helped protect the public services people depend on every day. 
President Saunders: You didn’t just lead AFSCME and all of the affiliates including UNAC/UHCP; you walked beside us in our toughest battles. You saw our fight for safe staffing and patient care as your fight. Your “never quit” philosophy didn’t just echo the spirit of the 1968 Memphis sanitation strike—it gave us the strength to keep fighting when the odds seemed insurmountable. You believed in us, and that belief made all the difference.
After the Janus v. AFSCME ruling, President Saunders didn’t waste any time. He set out across the country with a clear focus: grow our organizing strength and bring members into the center of the union’s work in every AFSCME affiliate. And when COVID-19 turned communities upside down, he lobbied for emergency relief through the American Rescue Plan, resources that helped protect the public services people depend on every day.
In 2021, during the “Striketober” wave, he rallied with us in Pasadena as we fought against proposed wage cuts and staffing shortages during the pandemic, pledging that AFSCME’s 1.4 million members would “fight like hell” alongside us. That same year, he championed our historic contract victories in California and Hawaii that defeated two-tier wage proposals. In October 2025, he joined us again on the picket lines in Southern California for our five-day strike against Kaiser Permanente, denouncing its $66 billion in reserves while our members faced unsafe staffing conditions.
President Saunders has joined us at our conventions, deployed AFSCME staff and resources to amplify our voice during national bargaining, and supported scholarship programs to increase diversity in the health care workforce.
Secretary-Treasurer McBride, your steady partnership with President Saunders helped build the infrastructure that allowed affiliates like ours to thrive. Your dedication to member-driven locals and your presence on our picket lines showed us that AFSCME’s leadership truly understood what it means to stand in solidarity. Together, you modernized our union family and positioned us to face existential threats with strength and unity.
As they both turn to this next chapter, please know that UNAC/UHCP will carry forward the fighting spirit they helped to amplify in us. Their power carries forward in every contract we win, every unsafe staffing ratio we challenge, every threat to unionization we beat back, and every time we choose care over corporate profits.
Thank you for 14 years of fearless leadership, for seeing our struggles as part of the broader fight for worker dignity, and for reminding us that when we stand together, we are unstoppable.
In solidarity and gratitude,
Charmaine S. Morales, RN,
UNAC/UHCP President