After 60 years on the job, Joseph’s career began before many members were born.

Funny, feisty, fearless – those are a few words to describe recent retiree Ruby Jean Joseph Graham, Unit Secretary at Montefiore Hospital. Joseph worked at Montefiore for 60 years and has been a union delegate for 50 of those 60 years, sharing her passion, leadership, and life experiences with her fellow members and staff. Growing up in Snow Hill, North Carolina, Joseph moved to New York at 18 with a family in tow. “I had to move from the South where there wasn’t a lot of opportunities for black people and traveled North as a mother of three” she says. She left a difficult situation and stayed with extended family.

It was her uncle that got her involved in healthcare. “He was a supervisor in housekeeping at Montefiore and got her a housekeeping job in 1964 as a Housekeeping Aide. From there she worked as a Nurse Aide and then a Unit Secretary, a position she kept until retirement. About the position, “I love being able to train people and keep the doctors in check, because they need it,” she chuckles, “I worked with all of them, especially when changes happened on the floor, and I helped them to adjust to that.” One big adjustment? When more female doctors were hired. “I made rounds [with the surgeons] and said they had to work with the new doctors, that they had to see and treat them like everyone else. I made sure to set them straight on that,” Joseph says.

Making sure everyone is respected and treated fairly is central to how Joseph operates. “I learned, the way I want to be treated, that’s the way you treat people. I’ve always had respect for and admired people, and when they disrespected me, I put them in check – just because you’re a doctor or a nurse doesn't mean you can disrespect me. I respect myself and I think you should do the same thing,” Joseph says.

That philosophy stems from her big family and a painful history. “I have ten siblings, seven girls and three boys and I’m the oldest! I’m used to having control and keeping people in line,” Joseph laughs. “My brother and I were often called the rebels – we weren’t afraid of anything, even though we lived in the South in the 60’s and saw so much racial injustice.” [During that time], when we went to work our name was ‘n-word’ and then when we would come home it was our actual names, I couldn’t get used to it. I asked my mother about it, and I saw her drop her head and say, ‘try to do the best you can with it, cause that’s the way it is now.’ But I knew something wasn’t right about that,” Joseph says. She’s used that tenacity inside the hospital and it’s what made her become a Union Delegate.

“I had an incident in 1974 where my manager and supervisor at the time tried to frame me saying I made a medication error on my transcription,” she remembers. “I didn’t do that and had proof that I wrote it correctly, and the supervisor had put up a nurse to say that I did. When that happened, I asked, ‘how can I get in a position to stop people from doing these things or to help people who these things are happening to?’ The response was become a Union Delegate, so I ran and won and for 10 years I never lost a [grievance] case!”

Throughout her time in Montefiore and with 1199, Joseph has been a part of historic events. “I heard Dr. Martin Luther King speak several times at 1199 and I made it my business to get a front row seat,” she says. “Coming from the South [sitting in] the back was not made for me!” Joseph has seen five 1199 presidents – from Leon Davis to George Gresham and knows them well. “I got to know Leon exceptionally well, him and Doris Turner. George was an X-ray student at Montefiore when I met him. I told him when he was Secretary Treasurer that one day you’re gonna be sitting in that chair [as president], just you wait. When it happened, I got a call from him and folks at Montefiore wanted to call me a witch woman because I predicted it!” One of her biggest accomplishments was raising the weekly wage at Montefiore to $100. “I remember ‘Dance in the street for $100 a week’ in 1968. When I started, my paycheck was $32 a week in 1964, and I was excited then! So, when we won $100, I had everyone form a circle around Montefiore to dance in the street for two hours; it was a celebration,” she says.

Joseph has always been about getting involved, from political activism and demonstrations, to strikes and rallies to make sure her and other’s voices are heard, especially now in the current political climate. “Their plan is to send this country backwards and all the rights we’ve fought to won will be stripped if he becomes the president again. That level of hatred during his tenure, a lot of it resonated with me, I started to see the return of the racism that I grew up with,” Joseph says. That’s why it’s important to be involved and vote. “The first time I went to vote was on a mule and wagon and they turned us around and said we couldn’t vote and now I can see the same thing coming back.” Joseph is excited about the possibility of a woman becoming President. “I firmly believe that it’s about whoever is qualified to do the job, but I am excited about women in power. I was excited about Obama and now am excited about Kamala Harris,” she says.