UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — April Verrett, president of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), will deliver the 2026 Philip Murray Memorial Labor Lecture at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, April 7, in 104 Keller Building on Penn State’s University Park campus. Verrett’s presentation, titled, “Money. Power. Respect. A Labor Agenda for the Next Generation,” is free and open to the public.
Verrett is an advocate for working people and a visionary leader at the forefront of building a modern-day labor movement. As the leader of the two million-member SEIU, she said she is driven by the conviction that unions give workers a platform to fight for more than wages, benefits, and working conditions.
The Philip Murray Memorial Labor Lecture is a lecture sponsored by the Penn State School of Labor and Employment Relations that brings a distinguished representative of the labor movement to Penn State each year. Now in its 31st year, the lecture promotes the exchange of ideas between the University community and leadership in the labor movement, with the goal being to contribute to a better understanding of the important role the labor movement has played — and continues to play — in a democratic society. The lecture honors the memory of Philip Murray (1886-1952), first president of the United Steelworkers of America and second president of the Congress of Industrial Organizations.
Additional information can be found on the School of Labor and Employment Relations’ website.