Lessons Learned

By Jim Gilbert

Earlier this summer, I was among the 21 social workers and nine clericals in the Bronx who were laid off due to Albert Einstein College of Medicine’s (AECOM) outsourcing the supervision of its Division of Substance Abuse Service. Even a union as powerful as ours cannot always overcome the powerful forces of contraction and consolidation.

But I leave with no regrets. On the contrary, I am filled with gratitude for my 28-year journey in which I was privileged to have been part of our great Union. Looking back at 1199SEIU’s rich history, I am reminded that from the Vietnam War to the Iraq War, from the struggle against South African apartheid to the struggle for homecare workers, 1199SEIU has always provided rays of light and hope to working people in general and healthcare workers in particular.

I began employment at Einstein in 1979 when the late Leon Davis was president. Many years earlier, Davis began a tradition of incorruptible, militant leadership that is greatly reflected in today’s leaders from delegates to the executive council. I have been privileged to have worked with and learned from some outstanding people in our Union such as the late Einstein delegates Bernie Minter and Joe James, Dennis Rivera and (Exec. VP) Angie Doyle.

Organizer Beverly Glover and VP Mary Whitten are more recent additions to this list of teachers/mentors. Beverly and Mary worked almost around the clock to secure jobs and benefits for our laid-off members I learned from our leaders simple concepts that provide the foundation for success in the complicated process of maintaining decent wages, benefits and dignity in the workplace. I remember Bernie Minter saying that when you confront the boss as a delegate you have company. You have 1,300 people (the size of our AECOM chapter at that time) with you.

Angie Doyle elaborated on this concept, saying that the union is stronger when a lot of members do a little work rather than when a few members do most of the work. I remember at a delegates training when Joe James opened the class with the question, “What is a union?” This question prompted a lengthy discussion, which concluded with the simple definition: “A union is a group of people that has two objectives: 1) to make the boss do what is in their interest, and 2) to prevent the boss from doing what is not in their interest.”

However remarkable our leaders are, the source of our Union’s power lies in the collective will of its members. In 1978, a year before I began work at AECOM, the chapter members struck following a breakdown in contract talks. One of the givebacks that management demanded was the tuition reimbursement benefit. As a result of the strike victory, my life was affected in a very positive manner. I had the opportunity to take advantage of the tuition reimbursement benefit and obtain a doctorate in social work. This degree enhanced the financial security and quality of life of my family.

"However remarkable our leaders are, the source of our Union’s power lies in the collective will of its members."

A moving symbol of our victory was the actions of an AECOM secretary who was a single parent with three children. She lived in an inner-city neighborhood where the school district was far below standard. Wanting her children to have greater opportunities, she enrolled them in a parochial school where she had to pay tuition. Money was very scarce for her, but nevertheless she walked the picket line. She could have gone to work and collected her salary but believed that her union was more important than immediate financial gain.

What a powerful statement and a shining example of our membership. She has since left AECOM, but she and others like her have my eternal gratitude. It’s unfortunate that some folks have the mistaken belief that our benefits are given at the pleasure of a benevolent management, and not earned by our united struggles.

Right now a scant 12 percent of American workers are union members. More than three times that number of workers in the United Kingdom and most industrialized nations are union members. It is no accident that European workers have shorter workweeks, more vacation time, and universal health benefits. They also have less heart disease and stress-related illnesses.

Meanwhile, our country is in the process of spending one-half trillion dollars on an unnecessary, illegal war that is taking the lives of our loved ones and innocent Iraqis, and is making rich men richer while 46 million American workers can’t afford health care and millions of American children go to bed hungry every night.

Our Union has taken a leading role in fighting our nation’s spiritual bankruptcy. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., that hard-core optimist and perhaps the greatest American of the 20th century, said on more than one occasion that 1199 was his favorite union. I’m honored that it has been my Union.