Dear Sisters and Brothers, I am happy to report that I will be receiving my second dose of the Pfizer vaccine on Thursday, Feb. 25 at Kingsbrook Jewish Medical Center in Brooklyn. I’m relieved and grateful that I will be protected from COVID-19. It has been very painful to watch so many seniors (and their families) in our communities be affected by this deadly virus. What’s as concerning is the number of seniors and retired people I’ve spoken with don’t want to take the vaccine. They have been frightened by lies and misinformation. Read More

COVID-19 shines a light on the critical, behind-the-scenes role of laboratory workers in patient care. 1199SEIU represents laboratory workers at Northwell Health’s Plainview Hospital on Long Island’s North Shore. The 219-bed community hospital serves residents of Nassau County, which, by early February had a total of 130,933 COVID-19 cases. At Plainview, as at all hospitals, lab workers are integral in diagnosing and treating COVID- 19. The virus continues illuminate the role of so many unseen healthcare heroes and the critical role in healing the sick and moving the nation past the pandemic. Read More

Our 2021 legislative agenda reflects both immediate worker protections, like Emergency Paid Sick Time and longer-term solutions to ensure the healthcare workforce have a voice in care delivery, greater protections from pandemics and other emergencies, and necessary industry oversight to ensure quality care. Read More

During an unprecedented national crisis, 1199ers moved to the vanguard to defeat perhaps the worst president in our nation’s history. Now we are moving to the front lines to help our nation heal and move forward from a confluence of health, economic, social and democratic crises. Read More

In January, after 50 years at Kingsbrook Jewish Medical Center in Brooklyn, Clinical Laboratory Scientist Fritz Joseph hung up his lab coat for the last time. At retirement age and with Kingsbrook’s lab downsizing, Joseph decided to dedicate his life full-time to art. Read More

As COVID-19 raged throughout New York City’s metropolitan area, there was an unexpected pilgrimage north to New York’s Hudson Valley. Real estate brokers touted economic renewal and a revived sense of close-knit, small-town community. Healthcare facilities proudly displayed banners proclaiming that “Healthcare Heroes Work Here.” It was a tableau of Rockwellian Americana. Read More

For Jesse Aguirre, a transport messenger at St. John’s Episcopal Hospital in Queens, NY, COVID-19 work became personal in April, when the 29-year-old’s mother was admitted to the hospital with the virus. She died after a month-long struggle. As painful as it was to say goodbye, Aguirre also believes that God led him to the work at St. John’s, so he could be at his mother’s bedside. Read More

What started as a hospital beautification project has become a historic initiative that’s transforming healthcare and addressing long existing disparities in Central and Eastern Brooklyn. Read More

Healthcare workers are among the first in the nation to be eligible to take the new COVID-19 vaccine—which evidence shows will provide significant protection against the deadly disease. There are two vaccines currently available from Pfizer and from Moderna, and both use messenger RNA (mRNA) technology. Read More

Millions of Bandaided biceps signal a return to normalcy: the COVID-19 vaccine rollout is under way. Read More

I received my first COVID-19 vaccination shot at Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx on Jan. 20. Except for a slightly sore arm, I feel great. What’s more, I feel overwhelmingly relieved. As many of you know—and as I have openly discussed on our Tele Town Halls, Conference Calls and Zoom meetings—for the nine months, I’ve been isolating from my family, including my children and grandchildren, in an effort to protect them and myself. It’s been a difficult sacrifice, but to be sure a small one compared to sacrifices you have made on the front lines of the pandemic. Read More

1199ers and community members from the Rochester, NY-area gathered on Zoom Jan. 18 for the 40th Annual Celebration of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. New York State Assemblyman Desmond Meeks was this year’s keynote speaker. Meeks was joined on the program by singer Zahiya and the Womba Africa dance troupe. Read More

Frustrated 1199ers at four New York City clinics run by Planned Parenthood of Greater New York (PPGNY) held informational pickets Jan. 7 to demand that management stop dragging their feet and settle a fair contract now. Read More

Maya Wiley’s week may not have started well, just missing the threshold to qualify for public funds, but it’s ending with a bang: the largest union representing the city’s healthcare workers, 1199SEIU, announced Friday that they are giving their endorsement — and their mighty political muscle — to her mayoral campaign. Read More

The endorsement by Local 1199 of the Service Employees International Union is a major win for Ms. Wiley. The union was a key early supporter of Bill de Blasio in another crowded mayor’s race in 2013. Read More

MIAMI----Members of the state’s largest union of healthcare workers, 1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East, are objecting to a contract demand by Healthcare Corporation of America (HCA) that would eliminate anti-discrimination workplace protections at hospitals across Florida. Read More

After four years of the most corrupt, dishonest, cruel, racist, misogynistic, incompetent, science- and fact adverse administration in history–– and one ending with a murderous assault on the U.S. Capitol––the Biden-Harris White House has its work cut out for it. And so do we. Read More

February is Black History Month. For generations of American pupils, this time of year meant an annual, cursory lecture on George Washington Carver and the peanut. But more recent scholarship shows Carver to have been not only an innovative agronomist, but even a farseeing environmentalist. More typically, if we were lucky, we learned about Rosa Parks and her 1955 refusal in Montgomery, Alabama, to give up her bus seat to a white rider. Until recently, America’s Black History has been not only ignored, but also too often caricatured Read More

The demand for COVID-19 vaccines far outstrips current supplies and the Biden-Harris administration has made increasing supplies part of his new comprehensive strategy to combat the virus. The administration’s goal is to deliver 100 million shots in 100 days and expand access to vaccines to more Americans in the coming weeks by expanding the vaccine supply and creating more vaccination locations through a Federal Retail Pharmacy Program. Read More

Yesterday, more than 55 nursing home workers at Highland Park in Wellsville voted to ratify their first union contract, ending a very lengthy labor dispute with the nursing homeowner that begin in July 2018. after nearly three years of negotiating for a fair contract with the out-of-town for-profit employer. The labor dispute was marked by multiple worker protests, include a three-day strike. Workers are represented by 1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East. Read More