Steering Committee Member

Polly Halfkenny has been a member of the NLG and its Labor & Employment Committee since 1995 and currently serves its treasurer and one of its co-chairs.  Polly has been active in tenant, anti-repression, labor, peace, international solidarity and other progressive struggles since the 1960s.  She was in the leadership of the parents’ movement in support of desegregation in Boston in the 1970s, was the coordinator for the Boston Chapter of the National Alliance against Racist and Political Repression during the 1970s, and was a chapter president and member of the Joint Executive Board of SEIU Local 509 in the late 1980s and early 1990s, among other activities.

Polly graduated from Northeastern University School of Law in 1995. While there she was active in the law school NLG chapter and spent six months in South Africa during the period leading up to the 1994 elections.  Polly interned with the Centre for Applied Legal Studies’ Gender Research Project in Johannesburg, providing research and support on issues of sexual harassment and women’s equality and customary law to organizations involved in developing the new constitution.  Polly later authored an article entitled "Legal and Workplace Solutions to Sexual Harassment in South Africa: Lessons from Other Countries," published in two parts in the 1995-1996 issues of the South African Industrial Law Journal.

Polly worked in the legal department of the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America (UE) from 1995 to 2009 and was its General Counsel for ten years. She is currently a staff attorney for Transport Workers Union Local 100 in New York and recently was elected to the Executive Committee of the New York City NLG Chapter.

Polly holds a BA in philosophy from Tufts University and an MS in education from Southern Connecticut State College.  She has two grown children – Kirsten and Enroue – and two grandchildren.

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