20. Richard C. Iannuzzi

With NYSUT boasting more than 600,000 members, Iannuzzi has been flying under the radar; his power is wielded behind the scenes. With nearly 500 full-time employees, NYSUT’s membership includes in-service and retired members in NY’s public and private schools, institutes of higher learning, nonprofits and government agencies. He also oversees more than 1,000 affiliates that bargain collectively for their benefits, et al. Iannuzzi is a leading voice in the labor movement, both at state and federal levels, and he throws his weight in the direction he feels is best for his people, be it popular or unpopular with the rest of us. Under his leadership, he has given the union a strong voice and even in this lingering recession many local school districts are tiptoeing around the huge compensation packages that are still enjoyed by many in his brotherhood. Iannuzzi scored a major victory recently when the LI school budget vote found 114 districts’ budgets passing, and only 10 failing—in stark contrast to neighboring New Jersey, where nearly 60 percent of districts’ budgets failed.