New Study Outlines Path to Safeguard Quality Patient Care and Healthcare Jobs in Lynn

MIAMI – Caregivers and leaders with 1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East met with officials with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services/Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (HHS/CMS) on March 16 to discuss solutions to the dangerous staffing, retention and care crisis in Florida’s nursing homes.

Albany, NY: Thousands of caregivers, still reeling from three years of the pandemic, will descend on the Capitol to call on Gov. Hochul and legislative leadership to reverse healthcare cuts and Close the Medicaid Coverage Cap.

After months of bargaining, taking action, and making our voices heard, nearly 1,000 members have a new contract at Elara that invests in caregivers!

Rochester, NY – 1199SEIU members at The Pearl Nursing Center on Portland Avenue overwhelmingly voted to ratify a 3-year agreement today. Nursing home workers are represented by 1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East, the largest healthcare workers union.

“The 2023 Florida Legislation has begun, and our powerful organization of healthcare workers will fight to protect patients, caregivers and our communities.

The 1969 Charleston, South Carolina hospitals strike was an early test of 1199’s strategy of joining union power with soul (civil rights) power. It was also an example of the Union’s deft use of its political influence in a hostile environment.

Lillian Bannister became an 1199 member in 1994, when she started as PCA at Our Lady of Mercy in the Bronx. By the time she retired at age 62, she had 27 years of service under her belt. Kadeen Kingston, a new Delegate and Unit Clerk at NewYork Presbyterian Methodist Hospital in Brooklyn was born one year later.

Charlie Hilario has been an 1199 activist for more than two decades, volunteering to take part in the Union’s political campaigns from the very beginning. During his time as a Delegate at NewYork- Presbyterian Hospital’s main campus in Washington Heights, he’s led so many new members through their orientations that he’s lost track of the exact number.

When other children were dreaming of becoming astronauts, doctors or train conductors, Dr. Peniel Joseph had his heart set on being an organizer. That drive came from his mother, Germaine Joseph, who was an 1199 Lab Tech for nearly 40 years at Mt. Sinai Hospital in Manhattan. Dr. Joseph remembers joining his mom on the picket line in elementary school, and that affinity with political activism only grew stronger during his teenage years.