By Rachel Hastings

Marcy Chong T’08 has spent her entire career swimming against the tide. First introduced to the labor movement as an undergraduate working in Yale’s unionized cafeteria, she’s been a dedicated advocate for workers’ rights amidst an economic and political landscape often hostile to organized labor.

But Chong, director of State Power for the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), has never been afraid of a challenge—or, in her words, being a little “contrarian.”

“The landscape for unions has been dismal since my career started,” Chong says. “But I also see it as a time of tremendous opportunity. When you’re at rock bottom, there’s a real openness to new ideas and strategies.”

This strategic mindset has been a defining characteristic of Chong’s career—and a key reason she chose to pursue a Tuck MBA after several years working for the SEIU.

“I didn’t come to Tuck as a career changer,” she says. Instead, she earned her MBA with a specific goal: gaining tactical knowledge about investment strategy to help inform the SEIU’s pension funds in ways that wouldn’t work against members’ interests.

But graduating amidst the 2008 financial crisis quickly forced a shift in priorities, leading Chong to use the skills she developed at Tuck in unexpected ways—like a two-year stint on the founding team of Action Network, a tech startup funded by the labor movement that provides unions and progressive organizations with essential digital tools.

“That experience drew on fundamental skills I’d built at Tuck—being able to present and communicate an idea and bring people along,” Chong says.

“I had enjoyed classes on entrepreneurship and leadership at Tuck, but I never thought I’d work in a technology-based startup.”

Once Action Network was up and running, Chong returned to SEIU to direct Strategic Initiatives for the Public Division, at a time when public sector unions were adapting to legal decisions that threatened their fundamental sustainability.

“I’ve always wanted to go to the area that had the most change happening and where I can have a big impact,” she says.

Today, Chong focuses on strengthening SEIU’s presence in Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Colorado, and Virginia. Her work involves coordinating resources, developing strategies, and building coalitions to advance the interests of workers in these critical battleground states.

Central to Chong’s strategy is challenging the outdated belief that unions only represent a narrow segment of the workforce.

“The face of labor is changing,” she asserted. “It isn’t just the stereotypical man in a hard hat. SEIU’s 2 million members are incredibly diverse. They’re women, immigrants, people of color, and low-wage workers in essential sectors like health care, security, state and local government, and home care. They include the newly organized Dartmouth Men’s Varsity Basketball team that made history when they voted to join the SEIU local in Hanover that has long represented Dartmouth employees. These are inspiring labor leaders of the future.”

In the face of politics that seek to drive a wedge between different groups within the labor movement, Chong says, it’s essential to stay focused on the core issues that face workers of all kinds—like wages that have stagnated for decades, even as corporations have benefited from globalization.

Chong emphasized unions’ role in setting a “floor” for acceptable business practices. By advocating for solid labor standards and regulations, unions help prevent a race to the bottom, ensuring that corporations compete on a level playing field, that workers are protected from exploitation, and that employers who pay decent wages are not undercut in the market.

“Businesses need to understand there’s a common shared interest in having a basic framework of laws and standards,” she says. Similarly, Chong says that business schools like Tuck have a responsibility to educate future leaders about the importance of unions and their role in a healthy economy.

“For example, union pensions fund the lifeblood of institutional investing,” she says. “That fuels sectors of the economy like private equity and comes from the labor of janitors, teachers, and health care workers.”

Chong urges her fellow alumni to recognize the value of a thriving workforce with access to livable wages and benefits. She points to John Pepper D’91, T’97, founder of Boloco, as an example of a business leader who has consistently prioritized policies of respect, retention, and development for employees even in a sector characterized by low wages and precarious employment.

“John is the kind of creative leader we need,” she says.

In the face of potential regulatory rollbacks, breaking of democratic norms, and attacks on immigrant and undocumented workers, Chong believes that business leaders have a responsibility to speak out and use their influence to protect the stability of the system they rely on and that creates a stable environment for employers, employees, and consumers.

“Now is a time for business leaders to lead,” she says. “Recognize the risks to business and to our communities that ensue when the economic system fails to work well for workers and voters and fails to acknowledge unsustainable inequality. Inventory what’s within your control and use your voice and influence to be proactive defenders and restorers of the economic system that you rely on.”

This story originally appeared in print in the winter 2025 issue of Tuck Today magazine.