A Union Built on a Progressive Foundation

COMMITMENT TO SOCIAL JUSTICE GUIDED 1199’S FOUNDERS.

The ability of 1199SEIU to unite a diverse membership does not come by chance. Founded in 1932 by progressive pharmacists and clerks, 1199 and its leaders were guided by the slogan “An injury to one is an injury to all,” and an unswerving commitment to social and economic justice. As early as 1937, the predominantly Jewish union won a campaign in Harlem for the hiring of African American pharmacists.

Workers from Manhattan’s Lenox Hill Hospital picket during historic 1959 strike.

And in 1958, 1199 undertook a campaign that would have a profound effect on the union and entire labor movement. The campaign sought to organize New York City’s voluntary hospital workers, most of whom were terribly exploited African-American and Puerto Rican women. Most earned about $32 a week with little or no benefits.

At the time, bigger and more powerful unions had declined to organize hospital workers. A major obstacle they cited was the exemption of hospitals from labor law on the grounds that they were charitable organizations. That did not deter leaders of the 5,000-member 1199. Enlisting the support of the civil rights and labor community, the militant campaign was waged as a crusade for justice and equality.

“An injury to one is an injury to all.”

The dam broke when, in December 1958, Montefiore members voted overwhelmingly for 1199. That sparked a 46-day strike in 1959, a deluge of hospital organizing victories and a state collective bargaining law for voluntary hospitals in 1963. By 1968, a mere 10 years after the beginning of the campaign, every 1199er earned at least $100 per week and 1199 had become New York City’s major healthcare union.

“The difference between 1959 and 1968 was like night and day,” says Manhattan’s Beth Israel retiree Ella Mae Harrison, who worked at the hospital from 1952 to 1992.

The $100 minimum campaign helped to jumpstart a national campaign in which 1199 joined hands with civil rights leaders and their organizations to win organizing victories in southern and northern cities. The late Coretta Scott King served as honorary chairperson of 1199’s National Organizing Committee. Those campaigns also championed dignity and economic justice and tied the importance of a union card to civil rights.

In the early 1980s, following the retirement of Leon Davis, 1199, then both a national and local union, was racked by internal struggles. Those continued until 1986 when the Save Our Union campaign of dedicated rank-and-filers and former staff and leaders recaptured the leadership and returned the union to its former progressive path, including union democracy, rank-and-file leadership and aggressive organizing. The late Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee – longtime supporters – lent their talents and expertise to the campaign.

In the past 20 years, 1199SEIU has quadrupled its membership and extended its reach. Organizing has accounted for most of that growth. Mergers also account for much of the increase.

In 1998, 1199 merged with Service Employees International Union (SEIU), then the largest union in the AFL-CIO. The merger added some 40,000 mostly nursing home members from the New York metropolitan region of Local 144. In 1999, some 15,000 District 1115 members on Long Island, New Jersey and Florida also merged. New Jersey and Florida were later granted their own SEIU charters. That same year, 22,500 Local 32-BJ-144 New York City homecare members joined.

In 2001, 3,500 Albany-area Local 200D members voted to merge. And 1199SEIU became a statewide union in 2002 when Local 1199Upstate with offices in Syracuse, Rochester and Buffalo voted to merge, as did Local 721, mostly LPNs at hospitals and nursing homes throughout the state, in 2004.

In the summer of 2005, 1199SEIU extended its jurisdiction south to Maryland and Washington, D.C. as 9,000 mostly service members of former 1199EDC and 1,000 RNs from Local 1998 voted to merge. Some 12,000 Massachusetts hospital, nursing home, home care and clinic workers from SEIU Locals 2020 and 9 followed them last fall.

Regardless of its size, location or its members’ job classifications, 1199SEIU continues on the path of equality, justice and diversity forged by its founders.