Sean McGarvey

Sean McGarvey is an American labor union leader.

McGarvey moved with his family to Philadelphia when he was two years old. In 1981, he completed high school and became a glazier. He joined the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades, becoming recording secretary of his local union in 1985, and then business agent in 1994.

In 2005, McGarvey was elected as secretary-treasurer of North America's Building Trades Unions, and in 2012, he won election as its president. As leader of the federation, he focused on increasing the diversity of its membership, and seeing the organization as selling its members' skills to business owners. He attended the Harvard Trade Union Program, and serves as a vice-president of the AFL-CIO. He is also secretary-treasurer of Ullico.