SEIU Healthcare's Jigme Ugen: First Tibetan elected as union leader in U.S.

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.workdayminnesota.org/index.php?news_6_3596

By Steve Share, Labor Review editor
3 April 2008
MINNEAPOLIS -

Tibet may be on the far side of the world, but the Chinese government's attack on political protesters there has been very much in the local newspapers — and very much in the thoughts of Jigme Ugen. Ugen, a second-generation Tibetan refugee, is the executive vice president of 14,000-member SEIU Healthcare Minnesota.

Ugen was born in 1972 to a Tibetan family living in exile in Darjeeling in India.

"I grew up with the American Dream in the foothills of the Himalayas," he said. "I listened to Leonard Cohen and Lynyrd Skynyrd." He majored in English at Delhi University and studied Shakespeare.


Jigme Ugen stands in front of a campaign sign for his mentor, the late U.S. Senator Paul Wellstone.

Minneapolis Labor Review photo

When Ugen decided to emigrate to the United States, he sought help from a U.S. Senator with a reputation as a strong advocate for the Tibetan people — Minnesota's Paul Wellstone.

"Paul was my sponsor to America," Ugen said. "I had complications with the paperwork… I sent him a letter and he replied. He helped me with the process. He wrote about three letters."

Ugen came to Minnesota in 2001 to join family here. Minnesota, he noted, has the second largest Tibetan community in the U.S.


FULL story at link.