1199SEIU Vice President Rickey Elliott was a great leader for social justice and a loving father, grandfather, brother, son and friend.



Rickey was born in Rochester, New York in 1975. Rickey started working for the University of Rochester in 1994 as a cook and became active in his union, 1199. A natural leader, Rickey became a union delegate, and eventually a full-time union organizer in 2000. He was elected a vice president in 2007. During his career as a union leader, Rickey helped organize healthcare workers in dozens of facilities throughout New York, New Jersey, Maryland and California. Thousands of those caregivers now have a union voice and a better life because of Rickey.



New York State Senator Tim Kennedy paid tribute to Rickey Elliott on the floor of the New York State Senate.