Together They Marched

How 1199 built its power.

“We got more powerful as we became more political.”

– Willie Mae Terry, Retiree We are ending 2021 with strong

victories with both the League of Voluntary Hospitals and Homes and the downstate Nursing Homes, following a narrowly averted strike. The nursing home win--involving contracts representing 33,000 members at 249 facilities in the greater New York metropolitan area--is important reminder of how the union built its power. A combination of unity and strategy has enabled members to negotiate some of the best wages and benefits in the country without resorting to a major strike in more than 30 years. Among the many storied struggles, the 1989 League of Voluntary Hospitals and Nursing Homes contract fights shine brightly. The victory ended a decade that began with the Union torn by internal divisions. The low point came in 1984 when members were led out on a 47-day contract strike, and a divided and weakened Union was forced to accept an inferior settlement. “Because of the divisions at the time, delegates had to fight to overcome the distrust among members,” says retiree Carmen Ortiz. At the time, she was a Bronx Montefiore Hospital radiology technologist and delegate with

 Carmen Ortiz [left], a retired Radiology Technologist and Delegate at Montefiore Hospital in the Bronx, NY.

 Ruby GrahamJoseph [right], a Secretary at Montefiore Hospital in the Bronx, NY.

a reputation for standing up for members, even under the most adverse conditions.

Ortiz also was a key activist in

the Save Our Union campaign, the historic reformist movement of 1199 members and former organizers and officers who won leadership in 1986 on a ballot headed by social work aide Georgiana Johnson. In the 1989 leadership election, EVP Dennis Rivera was elected president, winning over 90 percent of the vote. In preparation for the 1989 contract, the Union leadership launched an intensive education campaign and reconstituted the delegate body. Some 4,000 contract captains were recruited to assist delegates in the campaign. Retiree Willie Mae Terry was a New York Presbyterian Hospital medical assistant and leading delegate. “We had a lot of convincing to do after the 1984 strike,” she recalls. “I became a delegate because I wanted to turn the page.” Terry, who was born in Arkansas, knew the importance of organization and unity. Like the 1199 founders who began their political activity during the Great Depression, Terry came of age during another upheaval—the 1960’s Civil Rights Era. “I remember indignities like having to ride in back of the bus,” she says. “We treated the 1989 contract fight like a new organizing campaign. Organizers and delegates had to go back to the basics like the role of unions and of delegates and the necessity of unity above all. “We got more powerful as we became more political,” she recalls.

Ruby Graham-Joseph is perhaps

longest serving member at Montefiore Hospital in the Bronx. She began in the housekeeping department of Monte in 1964 and became a secretary in 1968. “I became a delegate after management tried to unfairly fire an RN and me,” she says. “And I remember dancing in the streets in 1968, when we won the $100 a week minimum in the League contract.” She too was a child of the Civil Rights Movement. “I picked cotton and tobacco in Snow Hill, North Carolina, when I was a child,” she says. Graham-Joseph says that trust was a key element in helping to unite the Monte membership in 1989. “We walked the floor and members listened because they knew and trusted us.”

Rather than call for an open-ended

strike, they decided to test the workers’ resolve with a series of rolling strikes. Leadership framed the actions as a fight for justice and for quality care for patients. The first one-day strike was called for July 11. To the surprise of management, some 40,000 members took to the streets. On July 25, another 40,000 struck. With each action, the resolve of the members was strengthened. They began to feel invincible. On Aug. 11, 40,000 members were joined by elected officials and other union members at a spirited Battery Park rally. That was followed by a successful three-day strike. On Sept. 1, members voted 10 to1 to strike—unless a settlement matching the one that had been reached with the city’s Catholic hospitals was reached by Oct. 4. Slowly other hospitals began falling into line, but others continued to hold out. Just hours before the strike deadline, an agreement was reached that brought raises of 21.6% for 50,000 members at 56 hospitals and nursing homes.

Unity was the key. “The members

trusted us,” says Ortiz. “They had seen me getting arrested and they knew that I and the other delegates always stood up for them.” The League settlement has provided a template for other 1199 contracts. Historically, for-profit institutions have been the most resistant to basing their contracts on the League’s. It was a tough battle with both the Greater New York nursing homes and the “Group of 65” this year. “Fair treatment is not too much to ask for,” says Arshma Middleton, a CNA for 25 years at Yonkers Garden Center NH in Westchester, NY. “Of course, we want a pay increase, but that isn’t all we want. Our workload is far too great. We’re understaffed, and workers are tired. That is not fair to either workers or patients.” In 1989, 1199ers won by standing, marching and sticking together. Middleton says, the only way members were able to turn a tough negotiation around today, was for members to “stick together as family.”

Just hours before the strike deadline, an agreement was reached that brought raises of 21.6 percent for 50,000 members at 56 hospitals and nursing homes.

 NYC 1199ers take part in the 1989 strike.