1199 Magazine

Governor Hochul is rightly responding to our ongoing healthcare crisis by putting an end to years of austerity and making desperately-needed investments in the providers and caregivers on the frontlines. We appreciate her focus on rewarding those who have sacrificed so much during this pandemic and building the workforce of the future so that patients can receive the highest-quality care. Read More

“Whenever I felt despair, I thought about my family. It was my Mom who sustained me,” says Jon-Adrian Velazquez, who was finally released on September 9th after being wrongly incarcerated for almost 24 years. Read More

As the Omicron variant spreads, it is important for you to understand the benefits that are available to you in the event that you or a member of your family gets sick. Here is what you should know about the different benefit programs that exist in New Jersey: Read More

We all expected and hoped against hope to see a healthier new year. But, the Omicron variant, raging across the world, has quashed that vision for now. The reality is that we are once again in severe crisis. Read More

Working in the healthcare profession, many 1199ers continued to battle the effects of COVID-19 in their institutions throughout 2021 despite the arrival of the vaccine early in the year. After being loudly praised as heroes in 2020, many also faced tough battles with management at the bargaining table to preserve their wages and benefits. But as 1199SEIU members have done for more than six decades now, they showed their strength across all our regions by standing together. Read More

As we head into the third year of a pandemic that has lasted longer than expected, Governor Hochul’s 2022 State of the State honors the work and sacrifices that 1199SEIU members have endured. We are pleased to see the Governor is making a significant commitment to invest in the current healthcare workforce, increasing the number of new workers joining the workforce, and moving them along their career pathway. We are also glad to see industry-wide solutions, including a new portal for potential healthcare workers and others seeking training. While we await more details in the budget proposal, we do have key questions about support for vital safety net institutions that have provided lifesaving care during this pandemic and about how the need for permanent wage increases will be addressed. Read More

We all expected and hoped against hope to see a healthier new year. But, the Omicron variant, raging across the world, has quashed that vision for now. The reality is that we are once again in crisis. We may be better prepared on some fronts this time. Still, we are concerned about the risks associated with the CDC’s newest recommendation to reduce quarantine time and allow healthcare workers who test positive, without symptoms, to return to work in five days. Read More

Forty years ago, 1199’s Bread and Roses Program revived its wildly successful musical revue. Whereas the original production in 1980 was titled “Take Care,” the 1982 version was named “Take Care, Take Care.” Read More

MIAMI---The state’s largest union of healthcare workers, 1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East, has published “A Crisis Of Their Own Making,” a white paper highlighting the failures of the long-term care industry as illustrated by one of Florida’s largest nursing home chains. Read More

More than 70 Home Care members from New York and Massachusetts traveled to Washington, DC on November 16 to join a national rally attended by the House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D, CA), and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D, NY), along with several other Congressional representatives from New York, to press for the passing of the Build Back Better bill. The legislation provides billions of dollars of investment in community based care, including Home Care. It passed in the House a few days after the rally and, at press time, the national campaign for Build Back Better had moved to the Senate. Read More

Every employee expects a grace period when they first start a new job. No one expects that a new employee should be operating with the same speed and precision as someone who has worked in an institution for 30 years. Read More

It is said that: “The race is not given to the swift or to the strong, but to the one who endures to the end.” This has rarely been more apt than when 33,000 members from 249 nursing homes in the greater New York metropolitan area reached a contract agreement with their employers on the brink of the first large scale 1199SEIU strike in more than three decades. Read More

On October 26 and 27, 1199 members at Nuvance / Vassar Brothers Medical Center in Poughkeepsie, and Nuvance/Putnam Hospital in Carmel, NY, voted overwhelmingly to ratify their one-year contracts after a long, hard fight with the new owners, Nuvance Health. Read More

The holiday season is upon us. Whether you celebrate Christmas, Chanukah, Kwanzaa, Eid Al-Fitr, or none of the above, this time of the year is a season of giving, of peace and love. Read More

The willingness to stand up for ourselves and our co-workers up to and including withholding our labor when necessary–no matter how long our odds of winning seem to be–is the hallmark of 1199SEIU membership and has been from the very beginning. Read More

Getzville, NY – More than 200 nursing home workers at Weinberg Campus in Getzville are celebrating a big victory this holiday season instead of picketing. Workers were able to reach a two-year agreement with Weinberg Campus late last Monday, December 13 narrowly avoiding an informational picket that was scheduled for Wednesday, December 15. Instead of picketing, workers held a ratification vote to review details of the agreement and to cast their ballots to overwhelmingly ratify the two-year deal that includes significant wage increases with a new wage scale for experience, improved pension contributions, higher starting rates, additional paid Juneteenth holiday, and more. Caregivers are represented by 1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East. Read More

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Consulate Health Care workers have many reasons to cheer after ratifying a new contract. Thanks to a strong and unified bargaining team, Consulate workers will receive annual pay raises, higher minimum starting rates, hazard pay, an eight-hour workday and successorship language to protect them if their facility is sold. Read More

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Now It’s the Senate’s Turn to Pass Build Back Better! Last month we traveled to DC to call on the House to pass Build Back Better. Now it’s the Senate’s turn. Read More