Buffalo, NY - More than 200 nursing home workers at four rural facilities in Western New York avoided a week-long strike after they reached a 2-year agreement this month. In a near unanimous vote, caregivers at 4 rural nursing homes ratified their new 2-year contract with Personal Healthcare. In February, caregivers held an informational picket to draw attention to short staffing, lack of fair wages and poor health insurance coverage. In March, 97% voted in favor of a week-long strike after months of negotiations without a fair contract. Union nursing home workers are represented by 1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East, the largest healthcare workers union in the country. Read More
The 1199SEIU office in Miramar opened its doors to members and their families looking for assistance with applications for TPS or Temporary Protected Status and the Biden Administration’s parole program. Both programs provide temporary protections for migrants from designated countries that are experiencing armed conflict, environmental disaster or other hardships or humanitarian crises.
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The ratification vote on Friday, April 14, was the culmination of months of negotiating that began in September 2022. Technical workers at St. Anthony Community Hospital voted to become 1199SEIU members in September 2021. The following July, the service workers at St. Anthony, Schervier Pavilion and Mount Alverno Assisted Living Center joined them. Negotiations were held together, resulting in one contract for all 240 healthcare workers. Read More
WHO: 1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East, 1199SEIU Training & Employment Funds, Monroe 2-Orleans BOCES, County of Monroe Industrial Agency (COMIDA), Rochester Employment Opportunity Center (REOC), 1199SEIU Healthcare Education Project, Strong Memorial Hospital/University at Rochester Medical Center, New York State Assemblymember Demond Meeks, Monroe County Executive Adam Bello, and City of Rochester Mayor Malik Evans, Program Participants. Read More
MIAMI – April is national Care Workers Recognition Month, recognizing the dedication and importance of essential caregivers, such as nursing home workers, across the country. Read More
There has been a purple wave of 1199SEIU healthcare workers converging at the Florida State Capitol building during the 2023 legislative session. Hospital staff and nursing home workers have met with dozens of state lawmakers to encourage them to support and implement effective solutions in Florida healthcare facilities that will respect workers (wages scales and agency pay standards), offer worker liability protections, pay staff (increased floor and ceiling wages) and include safe staffing levels (with quality incentives for employers). Healthcare workers are advocating for the following: Read More
Thousands of Healthcare Workers will rally statewide Wednesday to Protest Governor Hochul’s Proposed Budget Read More
Healthcare workers in cities and towns across New York will bang on pots and pans in front of their institutions and hold rallies to raise the alarm that Gov. Hochul’s proposed budget neglects NY’s healthcare needs. Read More
A New Orleans’-style funeral march to Governor Hochul’s office will be followed by non-violent civil disobedience to draw attention to the deadly impact of healthcare cuts. Read More
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. Read More
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. Read More
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! Read More
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. Read More
“The 2023 Florida Legislation has begun, and our powerful organization of healthcare workers will fight to protect patients, caregivers and our communities. Read More
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. Read More
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. Read More
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. Read More
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. Read More
When home care workers at Schofield Residence in Kenmore, New York, celebrated forming a union with 1199SEIU last December, it marked the beginning of a new chapter in home care organizing across the state. When these workers came together near Buffalo to vote
‘Yes’, they became one of the first licensed home health care agencies in Western New York to unionize. Read More