Local 1199 Photograph Files

Local 1199 formed in 1932 as the Pharmacists' Union of Greater New York. It affiliated with the AFL in the mid-1930s, adding Local 1199 to its name at that time; it would ultimately affiliate with the CIO in 1937 and operate under the name Retail Drug Store Employees Union, Local 1199. In those early years, the union's publication was known as the Voice of the Mortar and Pestle, the Union Pharmacist, and the Retail Drug Worker. The publication began using the name 1199 News as early as 1942. By the 1950s, its membership of pharmacists, porters, clerks and other drug store employees had grown to 6,000 workers employed throughout the New York metropolitan area in independent and chain drugstores.



In 1958 the largely white, male and Jewish drug store union leadership made common cause with predominantly female, Black and Hispanic non-professional health care employees, working to organize the staff of Montefiore Hospital in New York City. Encouraged by the successful result of this effort, the union began a massive campaign to organize workers including nurses' aides, dietary aides, orderlies, dishwashers, porters and laundry workers in all the voluntary (private and non-profit) hospitals in the New York metropolitan area. Among these nonprofessional and paraprofessional workers, 85% were African-American or Hispanic.



In May 1959, workers in seven voluntary New York metropolitan area hospitals (Mt. Sinai, Brooklyn Jewish, Lenox Hill, Beth Israel, Beth David, Flower Fifth Avenue and Bronx Hospitals) voted overwhelmingly to strike. The unprecedented and bitterly-fought strike lasted forty-six days. The accord reached by the negotiating team and the hospital administration that ended the strike resulted in a Permanent Administrative Committee Agreement which gave the workers much of what they were seeking but barred Local 1199 from resolving disputes directly with hospital management. Despite terms that effectively kept the union from representing the hospital workers, the agreement was approved.



Beginning with this proto-union for hospital employees, 1199 produced two parallel publications, the 1199 Drug News and the 1199 Hospital News (sometimes called the Local 1199 Hospital News), reflecting the two major branches that Local 1199 represented or hoped to represent.



In 1962, workers struck at Beth Israel and Manhattan Eye and Ear Hospitals, demanding formal union recognition and higher wages. The union was supported in this effort by the Committee for Justice to Hospital Workers, a group formed by Moe Foner and consisting of 100 African-American and Hispanic civic and religious leaders including Joseph Monserrat and Judge Emilio Nunez. When walkouts in eleven additional hospitals were threatened, Governor Nelson Rockefeller intervened, promising to put through legislation granting collective bargaining recognition to workers in New York City voluntary hospitals providing the union called off both the strike and threatened walkouts. The union agreed. In May 1963, Governor Rockefeller signed a bill guaranteeing hospital workers in New York City the right to unionize. In 1965 the legislature extended the bill to cover the entire state. In 1966, the 1199 Drug News and the 1199 Hospital News merged exactly at the moment that the hospital wing had gained widespread recognition. In 1970 after the union had expanded into nursing homes the publication was once again called the 1199 News.



Throughout the period of these photographs, the union was led by Leon Davis (president of Local 1199). His administration guided the union's political and social activities. African-American and Hispanic union members played an ever-growing role in the unions' struggles and achievements. Names that appear frequently in these records include representative Ramon P. Gonzalez; Hilda Joquin, a rank and file leader during the 1959 strikes who went on to become a steward and locus of support when she was fired on in 1962; Lorenzo Santiago; Ramon Malave, Secretary/Treasurer; Edward Ayash; and Gloria Arana. By 1964, Armando Ramirez, who had been an active member since the early strikes, was vice president of Local 1199 and that same year became chairman of the newly formed Spanish Affairs Committee.



Since up to 90% of the nonprofessional workers in New York City voluntary hospitals were African- American and Hispanic, Local 1199 positioned itself firmly within the civil rights movement and worked to instill a spirit of "brotherhood" at both official and social union gatherings. In 1961, Local 1199 helped Harry Van Arsdale and a fifteen person committee within the New York City Central Labor Council to form the Brotherhood Party, an independent political party for labor organized in part to combat the "exploitation, particularly of Negroes and Puerto Ricans [which] is rampant and brutal." The union supported the anti-Vietnam War/peace movement and the United Farm Workers boycotts in the mid-1970s as well. In 1964, a Comit para Asuntos Hispanos (Spanish Affairs Committee) was formed to promote involvement by Spanish-speaking members in the Administrative and everyday life of Local 1199.



In 1973, 1199 locals from several states founded the National Union of Hospital and Health Care Employees, RWDSU, AFL-CIO. Merger talks began with the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) in 1989, and after several false starts, District 1199(NY) joined SEIU in 1998 to become the National Health and Human Service Employees Union. At this time, 1199 News became known as 1199 SEIU News. In 2005, the publication was renamed Our Life and Times.