Members from all 1199 regions are working hard to ensure that worker champions win in November.

Thousands of members from 1199 shops as far north as the Canadian border, all the way down to the Florida Keys and many places in between have signed up to knock on doors and phone bank during this crucial election season. Understanding the necessity of electing representatives who will preserve and expand the rights of working people, “Weekend Warriors” have been hitting the pavements to talk with voters about what’s at stake on the November 5.

1199 members know that electing Kamala Harris and healthcare champions up and down the ballot will enable us to keep making progress in winning better wages and benefits, while allowing Donald Trump and his allies to return to power will usher in drastic cuts to healthcare. And it is not just patient care and 1199 jobs at risk. This election is also about choosing unity over division.

When Donald Trump and JD Vance launched vicious attacks against Haitian immigrants—many thousands of whom are members of our Union— 1199ers immediately called solidarity rallies to fight back against their attempt to divide working people and distract us from Trump’s failed policies and pro-billionaire agenda.

Nadia Bataille, a CNA who works at the Avante at Lake Worth nursing home near West Palm Beach in Florida, says: “The greatest response to these attacks is to vote to put decent people in the White House.” When Donald Trump was first running for president in 2016, he went to Little Haiti and made promises he didn’t keep, she added, “Instead he called us a sh*thole country. We [deserve] more than what we got in the last election.”

To maximize members’ impact on the election, the canvassing locations were carefully chosen. In New York, there are a handful of House seats that could determine the balance of power in Congress. Members packed into these candidates’ field offices in the Hudson Valley, Long Island, and Syracuse before fanning out across neighborhoods to reach as many of these crucial voters as possible. Upstate NY members headed to Western Pennsylvania, where polls were showing a dead heat between the two presidential candidates in the “must-win” battleground state.

“I’m supporting Harris for President because the issues are fundamentally about freedom and we cannot afford to go backwards,” explains Carla Heard, LPN at Elderwood at Williamsville Suburban Saffire nursing home in Buffalo, NY.

Shauntel Hinkson, is an 1199 Delegate and Lab Technologist at Mount Sinai main campus in Manhattan, specializing in infectious diseases, including Covid. Her grandmother encouraged her to join 1199. She signed up for phone-banking, saying: “I do a lot of political action work with the union. I believe it is important for us to do campaigns because we need to understand how the political world affects our day to day, where our kids go to school, the hospitals in our area, fresh food and vegetables in our grocery stores. It’s important to me that my children have a [secure] future.”

Felix Quinones, another 1199 Delegate and Supply and Equipment Handler at Mount Sinai, adds: “I think it is very important that we get people in office that are going to take care of seniors, healthcare workers. We need the U.S. Congress to be Democratic, so that we can pass all our bills.”

In Maryland, members hit the doors in Baltimore and Prince George’s County for Angela Alsobrooks, a major champion for healthcare workers, who is running for Senate in a tight race. New Jersey members came out in support of Sue Altman, the Democratic who is running to unseat the incumbent Republican Tom Kean in Congressional District 7. Control of the US House of Representatives hinges on just a few dozen competitive races nationwide, with NJ-7 being the most important in the Garden State.

1199ers in Florida are engaged in critical fights, including electing Debbie Mucarsel-Powell to Senate and winning the YES on 4 ballot initiative to overturn the state’s draconian abortion ban and enshrine reproductive freedom in the state constitution. From the “Palm Beach Warriors” to the “Sunshine Slayers”, teams of volunteers from different regions across Florida knocked on doors and called voters.

In Massachusetts, members came together on September 10 at the Quincy union hall to watch Kamala Harris face off against her opponent in the televised debate. The event was led by members Hayley Calderon, Isaias Ruiz, and Denise Tomkiewicz, who all took part in the Union’s Advanced Member Leadership Development Program, with Boston City Councilor Enrique Pepén stopping by to highlight what's at stake at every level with this election.

Neiby Perez, is an 1199 Home Care member with the Sunnyside agency in Queens, NY, who traveled to Poughkeepsie to canvass for Kamala Harris. A recent immigrant from Colombia, she said: “Kamala is a person with a focus on unity, not division. She is interested in the hopes of everyone—young people, working people and elderly people. We see in her someone who will bring the country together.”