Media Center

1979 was the eleventh straight year that New York City’s labor movement had failed to sponsor a Labor Day parade. That year,1199 decided to help fill that void. The Union’s Bread and Roses Program (B&R) hosted the first annual New York Labor Day Street Fair. The idea was to celebrate the achievement of the working class while having fun. “A good union doesn’t have to be dull,” B&R founder and director, Moe Foner, often declared. Read More

Long term care workers across Florida who have been on the front lines of the pandemic are uniting through their union, 1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East, to call on government officials and nursing homeowners to better protect and fully fund nursing homes. Read More

A group of MDDC region workers this year marked Juneteenth with a dramatic action standing up for workers’ rights—and in keeping with the holiday’s spirit of ending oppression. Read More

RN Deb Montgomery was hired full-time by HCA Palms West Hospital in December 2019 and immediately joined 1199SEIU for the better pay and protections provided as part of a union. Read More

Seventy-five percent of the United States adult population has now received at least one COVID-19 vaccine shot. The country met this milestone as the pace of vaccination has increased to more than 900,000 shots per day after a low of nearly 500,000 daily shots in mid-July. Read More

At Wesley Gardens nursing home in Rochester, NY, 1199ers care for a broad range of patients—from seniors on a memory care unit to young adults in physical rehabilitation. As at nursing care facilities across the country, Wesley Gardens workers struggled during the pandemic. They were and remain dedicated to keeping themselves and their residents safe. Read More

Parents and children across the country are getting ready to return to school amidst the COVID-19 surge caused by the highly transmissible Delta variant. The overwhelming majority of new COVID-19 cases and serious infections are among people who have not yet been vaccinated, and children 12 years old and younger who are not yet eligible. Read More

Check out our fall course schedule! Read More

Caregivers at Cayuga Ridge have been working short-staffed and without a contract since May 1, 2021. Downstate owners, Shalom and Barry Braunstein, are using stall tactics at the bargaining table while hiring agency staff to come work for higher rates. Read More

New York City loves a party. And on July 7, the city held a big one with a parade honoring the essential workers who sacrificed so much caring for the city that became the “epicenter of the epicenter” for the COVID-19 pandemic. Read More

In early July, 1199SEIU members and the League of Voluntary Hospital and Homes kicked off negotiations for a new collective bargaining agreement (CBA). Union members entered negotiations expecting challenges, but also with the hope that their unprecedented contributions during the pandemic would set the tone for collaborative and productive talks. Read More

1199ers were among the scores who rallied in lower Manhattan on July 29 demanding that NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio and the New York City Police Department (NYPD) enact long-promised reforms to their stop and frisk policy. The event was organized by Communities United for Police Reform. Eight years ago, in a landmark decision, a federal judge found the NYPD liable for a pattern of unconstitutional racial profiling and stops. Black and Latino New Yorkers constituted the overwhelming majority of NYPD stop-and-frisks. Following the decision, the NYPD, New York City, and community stakeholders began mapping out a series of reforms. Read More

Members 1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East rallied in Miami July 16 to show unity with Cuban citizens demanding freedom and fairness after decades of government tyranny, violence and corruption. Read More

A delegation of 1199SEIU homecare and nursing home members travelled to New York State’s Capitol in Albany, NY on July 27 to give State Senators a first-hand account of the crisis facing workers and patients in New York’s long term care sector—and offer practical solutions for resolving it. Read More

I know that I speak for the entire 1199SEIU family when I say that we have never in our lifetimes faced a challenge like we’ve faced these past 18 months with the COVID-19 pandemic. Read More

The COVID vaccines available in the U.S. are safe and effective. When the vaccines first came out early in the year, many people were concerned about side effects. But now we know so much more. There are over 150 million in the U.S. alone who have gotten the vaccine without any problems. Some, like myself, had a mildly sore arm for a couple of hours after the shot but serious side effects are extremely rare—much less common than for common medications like antibiotics or even aspirin. Read More

For more than 18 months, healthcare workers have led America through the COVID-19 pandemic. First, in March 2020, during the darkest days of the onset, the faces of weary caregivers lit the way to hope and to a time after the pandemic. And as the country fell into lockdown silence, it was the steady but exhausted, voices of healthcare workers that reminded us there was a way forward. And again now, as the delta variant rages among the unvaccinated and hospital beds are filling up and stretching caregivers to the breaking point, it is our healthcare workers who are doing the work of education, connection, and community building to help reduce vaccine hesitance and save lives. Read More

COVID-19 Vaccination Sites Read More

Western New York home care workers and families hosted a roundtable discussion with Congressman Brian Higgins (NY-26) to share the challenges facing those caring for seniors and people with disabilities. Together they are pushing for robust federal investments in America’s care economy. Read More

Who: Congressman Brian Higgins Peter De Jesus Jr, President of the Western New York Area Labor Federation Robert Weintraub, a local resident who relies on home care for his family Linda Wilson, a local home care worker & member of 1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers Read More