3 The President’s Column While the billionaires try to plunder the social safety net, the Trump administration is still trying to convince working people that their economic problems are caused by immigrants.
4 Safe Spaces 1199 members protest threats to allow ICE enforcement agents inside healthcare facilities.
5 Editorial Republican members are joining the fight against Medicaid cuts, as the Union mobilizes to protect the rights of working people.
6 Around the Regions More Optum Caregivers Unite with 1199SEIU; Columbia Memorial contract; Medicaid for Mental Health; Clara Maass Nurses Win Contract; Miami Members Maintain Benefits; DC Members Press for Better Home Care Law.
9 From Cage to Stage JJ Velazquez describes the long and winding road from wrongful incarceration to the Oscars.
12 The Work We Do Featuring members who look after people who have dedicated a major part of their lives to entertainment and the performing arts.
16 Fighting Back 1199ers from every region are speaking truth to power about the real world consequences of deep cuts to Medicaid.
20 Revoking Equal Access to Healthcare Working people are facing ever more drastic restrictions on their ability to access both abortion and gender-affirming care.
22 Our History “A good union doesn’t have to be dull” – Mo Foner, former 1199 EVP and founder of Bread and Roses.
The Big Lie
While the billionaires try to plunder the social safety net, the Trump administration is working hard to convince working people their economic problems are caused by immigrants.
We can’t say we weren’t warned: At last year’s Republican National Convention, delegates waved signs demanding “Mass Deportations Now.” There are, at a conservative estimate, eleven million undocumented immigrants in the United States. The force required to even attempt to remove so many people is showing us just how authoritarian this administration is prepared to be.
Plans include using the National Guard, state and local police and the military to go house-tohouse and business-to-business to round up millions of immigrants, expel them to tent camps along the southern border, in Panama and other Central American countries, and at the Guantanamo naval base in Cuba.
To deport 11 million people is, of course, insanity—one of Trump’s fever dreams alongside making Canada our 51st state and turning Gaza into the Mar-a-Lago of the Middle East. The deportation of 11 million undocumented workers means shutting down the US agriculture, poultry, livestock, restaurant, hotel, landscaping and construction industries. But that won’t stop Trump from making a show of it.
His fixation is not really about immigration, though. That’s as fake as Trump University or the man’s orange skin and hairdo. Two of his three wives were immigrants. His co-president and principal underwriter, Elon Musk, is an immigrant. He recently offered US citizenship to millions of white Afrikaner South Africans. In his first term, when he uttered the infamous slur about “having all these people from sh*thole countries come here”—
referring to Haiti, El Salvador and all of Africa—he also added that, “we should have more people from Norway.”
So, no, the man is not concerned with unchecked immigration. He is obsessed with non-white immigrants. The essence of his election campaigns: Make America White Again. In his 2016 campaign, the targets were Mexican “rapists” and Central American “criminals”; in 2024, it was the entire Haitian community of Springfield, Ohio, here legally for years, who were “eating the pets” of white neighbors.
It’s not the billionaires plundering the economy and depriving us of affordable healthcare and a decent education for our children. No, the problem is a make-believe “invasion” of families from the global South.
Trump was redirecting the anger of white workers about economic inequality into an imagined racial grievance. To deflect attention from the real steal of tax breaks for billionaires, the Republicans are trying to make people believe that reduced access to housing, education and healthcare is caused by a makebelieve “invasion” of families from the global South.
The Trump administration announced that it plans to revoke legal protections for hundreds of thousands of Haitian, Cuban, Venezuelan and Nicaraguan people including Temporary Protected Status (TPS) which many 1199 members rely upon setting them up for deportation next month.
The administration’s assault on immigrants is, of course, affecting the country’s healthcare systems. Dr. Altaf Saadi, associate director of the Asylum Clinic at Massachusetts General Hospital, reports, “We certainly have heard from folks that they have not left their homes in weeks. They’re sending their children to get groceries because they themselves are afraid to go, or they’re relying on their community and friends to help because there is that fear that they could be subject to immigration enforcement”. Saadi noted that it’s essential to understand how this directive will impact not just undocumented patients, but also anyone who lives with or has family members who do not have authorized immigration status.
Trump has made his plans clear. But as Mike Tyson famously said, “Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the face.” Like any bully, Trump will pick on anyone or any country that submits to him. Unfortunately, too many people—including some political figures who claim to be our friends—are unwilling to fight. But bullies will also back away after enough punches. Our union has never given in to bullies and we never will. Resistance to Trump is building in our communities, among unions, in our places of worship. He and Musk are coming not just for our immigrant communities, but for all of us. The impending battle is the fight of our lives. We need all the friends and allies we can gather. But to those too willing to abandon us, we say what the Civil Rights Revolution said half a century ago: Move on over or we’ll move on over you. Let’s go!
The President’s Column by George Gresham
Editorial: Holding Congress Accountable
Republican members are joining the fight against Medicaid cuts, as the Union mobilizes to protect the rights of working people.
Safe Spaces
1199 members protest threats to allow ICE enforcement agents inside treatment and clinical areas.
“Healthcare
facilities should be for healing people, not traumatizing patients, especially children and families.”
In early February, soon after the Trump administration took office, 1199 members and officers joined a rally in downtown Manhattan to protest against a new federal directive allowing ICE enforcement agents to enter treatment and clinical areas healthcare institutions
and other sensitive locations.
Hugo Roman, an 1199 Delegate and Patient Service Representative at a clinic in midtown Manhattan, said: “I’m here today on behalf of the vulnerable New Yorkers who my colleagues and I provide care for every day. All people, regardless of their immigration status, have the right to receive medical care. And we are outraged that the Trump administration has revoked guidelines that ban immigration sweeps in sensitive areas like healthcare facilities. I’ve worked in Hell’s Kitchen for 15 years, providing quality care to children, adults and seniors. Many of our patients are migrants, especially over the past two years or so.
But we treat all patients equally regardless of immigration status or ability to pay.”
He spoke alongside elected officials and community leaders at St. Mark’s Church in-the-Bowery at the rally organized by the New York Immigration Coalition. He was there to protest the devastating new federal directive that strips longstanding protections from immigrant New Yorkers who seek resources in sensitive locations including hospitals, schools and houses of worship
Roman added: “My clinic’s founding principle is healthcare is a right, not a privilege. Everyone from my coworkers to our patients seem on edge since the Trump administration revoked [these] guidelines. We have seen fewer
patients coming in and that terrifies us as caretakers.
“Healthcare facilities should be for healing people, not traumatizing patients, especially children and families. I’m here today with other 1199SEIU caregivers to demand that the Trump administration rescind their order and urge NY state and local leaders to protect my patients from ICE.”
Legally, ICE agents must present a valid judicial warrant to enter private spaces including all treatment and clinical areas of emergency departments and hospitals, where entry for anyone who is not a patient should always be monitored and denied by staff if an individual poses any kind of threat to patients or their families.
Judicial warrants are generally difficult to obtain unless someone is suspected of or wanted for a serious offense such as a violent crime or drug trafficking, said Elora Mukherjee, director of the Immigrants’ Rights Clinic at Columbia Law School, told the Gothamist.
1199SEIU has also issued a joint statement with the New York State Nurses Association, denouncing the new federal policy of allowing raids in sensitive locations, including healthcare facilities, warning that the policy dissuades people from seeking necessary care.
“Allowing ICE undue access to hospitals, clinics, nursing homes, and other healthcare institutions is both deeply immoral and contrary to public health,” it says.
The Trump ticket promised to lower the price of gas and groceries, remove the tax on overtime and bring back jobs from overseas. So far, none of these promises have come even close to being kept. Egg prices are trending upwards again, mainly because of unchecked bird flu. Gas prices are also on the rise and job creation is stalled, as stock prices tumble over continued uncertainty on tariff moves.
In spite of the flurry of executive orders attempting to roll back our rights and trim lifesaving programs, very little is actually being done to improve our lives. On the contrary, short staffing threatens to get even worse as some of us are losing our work authorization and even facing deportation. ICE agents are sweeping up hard working neighbors at our workplaces and schools instead of focusing on violent criminals. 1199ers in New York City recently protested against threats to allow ICE into treatment and clinical areas (See Safe Spaces, p. 4).
Above all, just like during the last Trump administration, the Republicans want to re-up the 2017 tax cuts for billionaires before they sunset at the end of this year. But the only way they can deliver for their wealthy backers, is by slashing the Medicaid program upon which so many of us depend by $880 billion.
They claim they simply want to eliminate “waste, fraud and abuse.” But we all know there is nowhere near $880 billion worth of fat on the bone and the only way of they can appease their billionaire puppetmasters will be to make devastating cuts.
That is what members told their Republican congressional representatives when they lobbied their offices in Washington D.C. at the end of March. (See Fighting Back, p. 16). They shared their real-life stories of family members who could not afford diabetes medicine, elderly parents who could not afford long-term care and autistic children who could not afford the life-changing therapies that they need without Medicaid.
Members who work at Planned Parenthood and other clinics in Boston, Baltimore and New York City also rely on Medicaid reimbursement to provide services like birth control, lifesaving cancer and STD screenings, as well as genderaffirming care (See Revoking Equal Access to Healthcare, p.20)
The good news is that the Republican majority of just three votes in the House is the closest margin since the Great Depression. We know that we only need to convince three Republican members to vote against deep cuts to Medicaid to put a stop to the idea. But the fight has only just begun and we can’t afford to let up the gas, if we are to save the rights and benefits that we fought for decades to win in the first place.
In spite of the flurry of executive orders attempting to roll back our rights and trim life-saving programs, very little is actually being done to improve our lives.
– Hugo Roman, 1199 Patient Service Representative at a clinic in midtown Manhattan
Hugo Roman addresses Manhattan rally against new ICE enforcement rules.
Sabrina Thompson
Around the Regions
“With a seat at the table, we can turn our workplace around.”
– Michele Baez, Sleep Tech at Rock Hill
More Optum Caregivers Unite with 1199SEIU
Workers at 11 different primary care locations who work for Optum Health Care in the Hudson Valley, NY (formerly known as Crystal Run Healthcare) voted overwhelmingly to join 1199 on February 25. This latest group of workers are joining the nearly 650 workers who are already represented by 1199, bringing the total number of union members to 1,700
Optum Healthcare has acquired almost all of the primary
MASSACHUSETTS
care practices in the Mid-Hudson Valley and has significantly altered working conditions and patient care practices as part of its drive for profits. Their latest takeovers mean that Optum is now the largest employer of doctors in the United States and is owned by United Healthcare.
“In a union contract,” said Marica LoFranco, a Patient Service Representative, at the Middletown location said, “we can establish clear
New members celebrate victory at Optum –Crystal Run.
Informational picket at Columbia Memorial Hospital
Columbia Memorial contract
Members in New York’s Hudson Valley ratified a contract with Columbia Memorial Hospital in early February which will include a 22.25 percent acrossthe-board raise for more than 750 union members over the four years of the contract. 1199ers also won a new minimum rate for union workers at the hospital of $18 per hour, improved STEP increases for key job titles, and higher employer contributions to health insurance costs.
The new contract came after a year of contentious bargaining.
“Despite any disappointment with CMH’s lack of appreciation for our hard work and sacrifice over the years, 1199SEIU members will continue to provide the best possible care to our patients,” said Robin Johnson, an 1199 operating room RN with 35 years at CMH. “We have something to build on–but we have a long way to go.”
job descriptions and duties to protect against management changing our workloads constantly without adjusting our pay. Compensation should match amount of responsibility and be clearly defined.”
Michele Baez, an Optum Sleep Tech at Rock Hill, who also voted to join 1199, said she voted ‘Yes’ for better health benefits, better salary, and better management.
“I have been with Crystal Run Healthcare since 2002 and we hoped that merging with Optum would be better,” she said. “But everything just got worse. With a seat at the table, we can turn our workplace around.”
Optum ran an intense antiunion campaign in an attempt to intimidate the Crystal Run caregivers from exercising the legally-protected right to organize a union. Now the healthcare behemoth is challenging the results of the democratic election administered by the federal government on unsustainable legal grounds. Optum has filed objections with the National Labor Relations Board [NLRB] in an attempt to overturn the results of the election Optum claims that they were denied the right to make every employee attend a mandatory anti-union presentation. Under the former administration’s NLRB, employers were prohibited from forcing employees to listen to an employer’s one-sided anti-union speech.
Medicaid for Mental Health
1199 Licensed Creative Arts
Therapists joined a coalition of their fellow practitioners, educators and advocates in Albany on March 10, to lobby New York State lawmakers on their patient’s behalf. By utilizing art, music, drama and other techniques that do not rely solely on talking, LCATs are able to transform the lives of some of their most vulnerable patients who may not be reached by more traditional methods. The coalition called on New York State Governor Kathy Hochul to allocate $2 million dollars, and to add LCATs to the Medicaid Provider List.
Because patients who depend on Medicaid are rarely able to access specialized LCAT treatment under the current rules, many end up returning to hospitals again shortly after being stabilized.
Monica Lopez Gamboa, an 1199 LCAT who works at Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx, said many of her patients live below the poverty line and are often recent immigrants who speak languages other than English. Lopez added, “With more funding for LCAT treatment in the community, we could put an end to the revolving door of treatment.”
“With more funding for LCAT treatment in the community, we could put an end to the revolving door of treatment.”
– Monica Lopez Gamboa, 1199 LCAT, Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx (pictured left)
Clara
Maass Nurses Win Contract
The New Jersey nurses who formed a union with 1199 at Clara Maass Medical Center in Belleville voted to ratify their first contract in mid-February. They were the first group of RNs to successfully negotiate a contract in the Garden State in nearly a decade.
The two-year agreement includes guaranteed raises, among other job improvements. To address the nurses staffing concerns, management has agreed to set up a Collaborative Staffing Committee (CSC), meeting no less than once a month and including five union members and five managers.
The CSC will discuss, review, and make recommendations regarding staffing guidelines, nurse workload, recruitment and retention, the use of agency staff, staffing complaints, health and safety, and other staffing-related issues.
Tanya Howard, 1199 RN, rallies at Clara Maass.
NEW JERSEY
Around the Regions
Miami Members
Maintain Benefits
Experienced members at North Shore Medical Center in North Miami, retained their benefits and are now enjoying significant pay increases even though the facility transitioned to new ownership under Healthcare Systems of America (HSA), an affiliate of American Healthcare Systems.
One 1199 Physical Therapist with 20 years’ experience at North Shore saw his pay jump dramatically from $33 to $51 per hour. Maxine Adams, a patient care technician (PCT) who has worked at North Shore for 10 years, was bumped from $16 to $22 per hour.
“This is a great win for our union, our workers and our patients, too,” said Adams, a caregiver for more than 30 years who has relied on double shifts and overtime to cover her bills. “The increase can really be life-changing when you’re no longer living paycheck-to-paycheck or feeling insecure about basic expenses. We all deserve a living wage that not only pays our bills but lets us put some money aside for an emergency or retirement.”
Washington D.C. members lobby their city council.
Maxine Adams, an 1199 PCT at North Shore Medical Center in Miami, Florida.
DC Members Press for Better Home Care Law
On March 7, 1199ers in Washington, D.C. lobbied at their city council for legislation that will help D.C. meet its growing need for homecare workers in the coming decades. In solidarity with the DC Coalition on Long Term Care, members met with lawmakers about the Direct Care Worker Amendment Act, which would increase wages and streamline the credential process for direct care workers to meet the growing need for care workers in D.C.
“[Patients] wait, and wait, and wait, for an aide that may never show up,” said Tiffany Hoey, an 1199 Client Services Representative at D.C.’s Whitman-Walker clinic.
“The pay is very, very
low, people can’t make ends meet. We really need this bill passed, and we absolutely need help because it’s disheartening. We’re losing patients because they can’t get the care that they need after they leave the doctor’s office.”
Chloe Gross, an 1199 RN at Whitman-Walker added, “Once patients are deemed eligible to meet the qualifications for a home health aide through the initial assessment, it can take up to six weeks for the patient to be assigned a home health aide. This is difficult for everyone, and in particular, for people who have no family members to help them.”
Stage From Cage to
JJ Velazquez describes the long and winding road from wrongful incarceration to the Oscars.
WASHINGTON D.C.
“We had to fight our own demons to make this movie.”
A lot can happen in three years, and Jon-Adrian (JJ) Velazquez, the only son of retired 1199 Home Care organizer Maria Velazquez, knows this firsthand. Life has taken him to many unexpected places. “I would say it’s harder to get into the Oscars than it is to get into the White House since I’ve been to both,” jokes Velazquez.
“[For the] Oscars we’re driving, and all these streets are blocked off. You got soldiers and police out there with rifles and dogs, searching every vehicle. It was a whole traffic jam of celebrities and vehicles trying to get to the red carpet, it was a lot,” he adds.
Attending one of the most glamorous and exclusive events in the world was quite a reversal of fortune for Velazquez, who spent nearly 24 years in jail for a crime he did not commit. At age 22, he was wrongfully convicted and incarcerated. He’s only been a free man again since September 2021, when he was granted clemency and later exonerated.
Velazquez attended the Oscars this March in recognition of his role in Sing Sing, a film where he acted alongside Coleman Domingo, Clarence Maclin, and Paul Raci. It received three Academy Award nominations.
Many of the film’s actors, like Velazquez, were formerly incarcerated men who shared an authentic connection to the story. “Essentially 85% of the cast had gone from the cage to the stage and now are representing humanity in one of its rarest forms, in film,” Velazquez says.
Filmed in just 18 days, Sing Sing tells the story of a man wrongfully imprisoned who finds hope through the Rehabilitation Through the Arts (RTA) program, a real-life program within Sing Sing prison, producing a comedy with incarcerated men as the theatre troupe. For Velazquez, the film’s narrative hits close to home.
Sing Sing started shooting in July 2022, just nine months after Velazquez’ release. “Yeah, that’s the emotional aspect of it,” Velazquez says. I spent 23 years, seven months, and eight days fighting to get out of prison, to get out of those prison greens that we had to wear for so many years. So, of course, there was a level of trauma, trepidation, and hesitation to going back and wearing the uniform I fought so hard to get out of. I remember the first day of wardrobe and I’m telling everybody, ‘How many of you expected to put this uniform back on? I know I didn’t!’”
Still, the cast and crew recognized they were all part of something bigger.
“We all realized the mission was bigger than any one of us, and in fact, even bigger than us collectively together,” Velazquez says. “We wanted [this movie] to have a bigger social conversation about the realities of mass incarceration and the fraudulent ideas that stem from fear about people and not seeing people’s humanity. We realized we had an opportunity to change the face of incarceration and change the
conversation and perspective about the people that are incarcerated. This was much bigger than any one of us and it was absolutely necessary, so we toughened up and faced what we had to— we had to fight our own demons to make this movie.”
It also helped that they had a counselor on set for support. Initially, Velazquez thought he’d only serve as a consultant on the film. But then he had a surprising audition.
“I worked with RTA while I was in Sing Sing, so people from RTA reached out to me [once I was released],” he recalls. “We’re talking and they had me do an exercise where I close my eyes and describe this special place. I talk about being outside with my mother…and when I open my eyes, they said, ‘We want you in the movie.’ In the movie, where we’re all in the circle and I share an exercise, that’s the same thing I told them on the Zoom call. It was so powerful, they cast me and put it as a scene in the film.”
Filming also took place during the Hollywood strikes of 2022, adding a layer of complexity to the production. It was overcome in a unique way, according to Velazquez.
“We worked with an equity pay model, everyone got the same rate, so we’re all basically partners on this film,” he says. “I made the same amount as Domingo who made the same amount as wardrobe, or the director or producer. It’s all the same rate; the
only differentiator is the amount of time. Essentially, it alleviated the big ‘I’ or little ‘you’—we’re all one team trying to make a win. Anything less would have been exploitation, and it would have impacted the authenticity of the film.”
Since Sing Sing’s release, Velazquez has stayed busy promoting the film while continuing to support those who are still incarcerated. He works
as Program Director for the Frederick Douglass Project for Justice, an organization facilitating conversations between the public and incarcerated individuals to promote understanding and human connection. He also serves as the Executive Director of Voices from Within, a leadership and mentorship program he co-founded while incarcerated that promotes growth, development, and selfawareness as members share their
story and become a support system through reintegration.
Velazquez’s journey has led him to strangely unexpected places, like the White House. “I envisioned myself being at the White House and talking to the president while I was in prison, though I didn’t know which president it was going to be, but I knew I would be there having a conversation about incarceration and what I experienced,” he says.
Susan Hampstead, Dino S Johnson, Lisa Evans, Clarence Maclin and, Geri Leigh Tiu (Velazquez’s wife), celebrate at the Oscars with JJ Velazquez.
– JJ Velazquez
The Work We Do: The Actors Fund Home
As the home of Broadway and the setting for umpteen movies and television series, New York City employs tens of thousands of people in the performing arts and entertainment industries.
When they reach the end of their careers and need some extra help with the activities of daily living, 1199 members are there to look after them.
The Actors Fund Home in Englewood, NJ, is a senior residence owned and operated by the Entertainment Community Fund. The 1199 Magazine recently caught up with some of the Union members who look after the people who have dedicated a major portion of their professional lives to entertainment and the performing arts. The members described how many of these retired professionals are still enriching the lives of those around them with their performances.
1. Even though she went from Lead Cook to Kitchen Supervisor two years ago, January Young was determined to remain in the Union. “I came from another nursing home nearby, which was not unionized, and they suddenly wanted to cut my hours,” she says. “The difference in atmosphere here at the Actors Fund Home is like night and day.”
In her new role, she is able to be an effective liaison between the kitchen director and her fellow Union employees. “It was important for me to stay in the Union because whenever there’s an issue, we know that our organizers will answer our call. Someone from 1199 comes here every month to explain our benefits and bring us some new swag,” Young adds.
“The standard of food here is very high,” she says. “We use top of the line ingredients like filet mignon and lobster tail and it’s rewarding for me to work with such quality items. I get many compliments from residents telling me that they are gaining weight. Family members also tell me that their Mom ate another day because of the food prepared. Presentation is so important. People eat with their eyes. Its great to know that what I do can help the residents get stronger.”
Young says that one of the residents she cooks for was the voice behind classic Sesame Street characters, including Oscar the Grouch and Big Bird.
“I’m a single mom and my 11-year-old watched Sesame Street as a kid. Just like me,” she says. “I remember it well. Now my son goes to school and tells his friends that his mom talks to the Cookie Monster.
Patricia Sinclair started as a CNA at the Actors Fund home fifteen years ago. During the pandemic she was given the title of “Quality Coordinator” and began liaising with the Director of Nursing and her fellow CNAs when staffing issues came up.
“I get along with most if not all of my co-workers,” Sinclair says. “People always try to inform me if we are running short in a particular area, so I can get someone to step in. Luckily, we haven’t been short for a while. After the pandemic they started hiring people. Many of the people who first came here from agencies have opted to stay here full-time. It is an excellent place to work. We are like family here, and we respect each other. The administration looks out for workers who care, and they listen to our concerns.”
The facility gets a lot of support from the entertainment community. Broadway actors and dancers often come to the home and give performances. Hollywood stars also donate their time and money to help fund the high standard of care. Members received a pay increase of $1 per hour plus a weekend differential following the latest union contract negotiations last summer
2.
3. I love being in 1199, we know they have our backs when we have any problems,” says Brittany Lara Mendez, who has worked in Housekeeping for the past three years. “It also helps to have the Union health insurance.”
Mendez moved to the U.S. with her mother in 2018 from Spain, but is nonetheless very familiar with American television dramas. Recently, when cleaning the room of one of the residents, the man began reciting dialogue from a long-running police series.
“I recognized the series right away,” Mendez says. “It turns out that he was a special actor in that series. His memory comes and goes, and he doesn’t have anyone to talk to, so it was nice to make a connection with him. We have to listen to the residents. It is very important to them.”
Another resident, who had been a professional writer during his working life, created his own newspaper and keeps his mind active by writing stories about events that happened long ago.
“I never get tired of hearing the residents’ stories,” Mendez adds. “I love hearing about their youth, learning things that I never knew,
both good things and bad things.”
4. Errol Hunter has been working at the Actors Fund Home since 1997, and was one of the first members to become a Union Delegate 22 years ago.
Working as a Dietary Utility Aide, Hunter makes sure the kitchen is clean, sanitized and well-stocked. Sometimes he prepares trays for residents.
During the Oscar ceremony in March the staff set up cheese, fruit and wine for those who wanted to watch. “They loved it,” Hunter says.
“Years ago, one of the residents pointed out his daughter up on the screen during the Oscars. She was one of the recipients that year.”
Hunter adds, “It is very interesting to hear their stories.
One man told him that all he had left was his trumpet because his manager robbed him. A woman told me her husband used to own Yankees Stadium.”
“The Union is all about job protections, as well as healthcare and retirement benefits,” Hunter says. “The first jobs I had when I came here from Jamaica did not have health benefits.” It makes a big difference having to pay just
a $10 co-pay every three months.
Not far off retirement age himself, Hunter is now actively recruiting other active members to take his place as the Delegate. Over the years, he’s been a member of many bargaining committees responsible for securing multiple contracts.
5. When Jennifer Harris first began working at the Actors Fund Home nine years ago as a CNA, she knew she’d found her calling.
“One day I was taking care of somebody who told me she had been a dancer on Broadway, and it turns out that she knew my mother, who was also a dancer. I love that I still run into people in the ‘business’ here,” says Harris. “Being in this setting feels very comfortable to me. It’s familiar. My grandmother was also a dancer, and she appeared in Irene.”
The classic musical opened on Broadway in 1919 and ran for 675 performances. At the time, it was the longest-running musical in Broadway history, and maintained that spot for nearly two decades.
“I raised my son, now 26, and daughter, now 24, on the Upper West Side and we used to play
softball in the Broadway Show League in NYC’s Central Park,” Harris adds. “My mother was a dancer in the original Guys and Dolls theatre production in 1950 and my father was a producer who won three Tony awards.”
Harris used to work for in-house ticketing at Jujamcyn Theatres, the third-largest theatre owner on Broadway. Then she married a stagehand and moved to New Jersey. “My three older brothers were all Broadway stagehands, so I’ve been around this community for most of my life,” she says.
The brothers were all members of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (I.A.T.S.E) – Local 1.
When her marriage ended, Harris went into the healthcare field and was very happy to be able to give back to the entertainment community.
“What I love to do is create relationships. My job is dedicated to patient care, and I find that the love I give, I always get it back,” she says. “You have to be kind and patient. It is not always an easy job, but I find it rewarding.”
“One day I was taking care of somebody who told me she had been a dancer on Broadway, and it turns out that she knew my mother, who was also a dancer. I love that I still run into people in the ‘business’ here.”
– Jennifer Harris, a CNA with strong ties to Broadway of her own
FIGHTING
BACK
1199ers from every region are speaking truth to power about the real world consequences of deep cuts to Medicaid.
As crippling cuts to Medicaid funding which are the only way the Republicans can pay for their planned tax breaks for billionaires are being threatened in Washington D.C., 1199ers from all regions are lobbying their lawmakers and taking to the streets to raise the alarm.
Members of the largest private sector union in the country are keenly aware of what these planned cuts to the Medicaid lifeline would mean for the lives of working people.
Christina Otero, an 1199 Delegate from Western New York, gave testimony before the Steering and Policy Hearing on Medicaid on Capitol Hill on March 6 about her nephew, William.
Her testimony was featured on the Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell on MSNBC. She said: “Sadly, William. was born with several complications. He’s autistic, non-verbal and was diagnosed with cerebral palsy and hydrocephalus. He also has a shunt implant. That
Opposite page: members join massive rally in Manhattan against Medicaid cuts
Susan Campbell, an 1199 Food Service Aide at Eger Healthcare nursing home on Staten Island lobbies her Republican Congresswoman.
shunt aids in draining excess fluid from his brain.”
Otero, an Entitlement Coordinator at the Alba de Vida, chemical dependency treatment facility in Buffalo, added: “Dr Paul Farmer once said that if healthcare is considered a human right, who is considered human enough to have it?
Holding up a photo of her nephew at the hearing, she asked tearfully: “Is William human enough to have that right?”
Republican lawmakers have put $880 billion in Medicaid funding on the chopping block, meaning that the healthcare that William and millions of other Americans depend upon, is now at risk.
Medicaid is the largest and most important health insurance program in the country, covering the majority of home care services and five in eight nursing home residents. More than one third of children and nearly half of all pregnant women rely on the program, in addition to millions of people with disabilities, seniors and low-income working families. Republican lawmakers claim they need to make drastic cuts to Medicaid to combat “waste, fraud and abuse.” 1199ers joined fellow healthcare members in SEIU who traveled to Washington D.C. from all over the country on March 26 to visit their Republican congressional representative and tell them face-to-face why they do not believe their excuses.
Susan Campbell, an 1199 Food Service Aide at Eger Healthcare nursing home on Staten Island said she had voted for Republican Nicole Malliotakis twice, “but I won’t be doing it again if the Medicaid cut goes through. $880 billion to cut from Medicaid funding is absurd.”
“I won’t
be [voting Republican] again if the Medicaid cut goes through. $880 billion to cut from Medicaid funding is absurd”.
Another Republican voter, James Streitenberger, an 1199 Lab Assistant at HCA Trinity in Florida’s Pascoe County, said:
“I have a background in mental health treatment, so I know that people who can’t get insurance, can’t get appointments and then can’t get medications. They will end up being stuck in our jails for no reason because people won’t understand why the patient is acting the way they do. Family members will have to go through this traumatic experience with them and their kids. Medicaid
cuts will not only affect us, but our patients and the people we love.”
At the Union headquarters on March 17, Bronx home care Delegate, Ana Medina, described her own experiences at a Medicaid Teach-in attended by the House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries.
“I’m a cancer survivor,” said Medina, “Without Medicaid, I wouldn’t have had access to the medication and care I needed to fight for my life. And today, I still depend on it.”
Home care, too, is largely funded by Medicaid, she
added: “Without it, the people I care for, the seniors who have worked their whole lives, the disabled individuals who deserve independence, and the families trying to keep their loved ones at home, what happens to them? Where will they go?”
In Florida, 1199ers shared stories about how Medicaid cuts would hurt their patients and loved ones with Congressmen Maxwell Frost on March 21. Janice Nichols, 1199 CNA who works in an Orlando rehabilitation facility. “It was great meeting our Congressman and knowing that we have someone in Washington on our side fighting for things that are essential to Florida families and workers. People are truly scared of dangerous cuts to life-saving healthcare because a few billionaires want even more tax breaks.”
Members in Manhattan took to the streets alongside fellow labor union members, political activists and community groups on March 15, united against the proposed $2 trillion cuts to Medicaid, Medicare, housing and food assistance, education, and other vital programs.
The march kicked off with a rally in Foley Square before making its way to Wall Street, where members staged a “die-in” in front of the Stock Exchange.
Andrea Fraser, an 1199er who works in the Dietary department at the Park Gardens Rehab and Nursing Center in the Riverdale section of the Bronx said that Medicaid funds most of the nursing homes in New York City.
“It was important to make our voices heard in front of Wall Street. We can’t let them take away the benefits that working people have earned through years of struggle.”
Opposite page, top: Maryland members visit their newly elected U.S. Senator, Angela Alsobrooks (center).
Members participate in a “die-in” outside the New York Stock Exchange to protest Medicaid cuts.
Janice Nichols, an 1199 CNA at an Orlando, Florida, rehabilitation facility (left) at the office of Democratic Congressman Maxwell Frost.
House Minority Leader, Hakeem Jeffries attends a Medicaid rally at Interfaith Hospital in Brooklyn with 1199 Delegate and PCT, Michele Ned (at podium).
1199 members at Democratic Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio Cortez’s office in Washington D.C.
– Susan Campbell, 1199 Food Service Aide at Eger Healthcare nursing home on Staten Island, NY
Revoking Equal Access to Healthcare
Working people are facing ever more drastic restrictions on their ability to access both abortion and gender-affirming care.
Rolling back the rights of working people in America is a long-term project of the Republican extremists, which has been gathering pace since they took control of the federal government in 2017.
During that previous administration, important appointments were made to the Supreme Court, which laid the groundwork for overturning the Roe v Wade decision in 2022, removing the constitutional right to abortion.
In June, the Supreme Court is due to rule on a case that could have far reaching effects on the ability of transgender people to also access healthcare.
On top of the legal threats [as this edition went to press], devastating cuts to the Medicaid budget looked likely in order to fund the massive spending cuts the Republican-led administration in Washington D.C. needs to pay for tax cuts largely benefiting the billionaire class.
Hundreds of 1199ers work at clinics which enable working people to access both safe abortion and gender-affirming health care. Sweeping cuts to Medicaid would also put the care they provide at risk.
“Cuts to Medicaid are very scary for us,” said Gwen, an 1199 Paralegal at Whitman-Walker Health, a community clinic in Washington, D.C. which specializes in LGBTQ+ health an HIV care.
“We are required to accept Medicaid and work with a lot of patients on Medicaid. The only way we can budget is if we have stable reimbursement rates. Pharmacists can buy lower-priced drugs and provide medication at reduced rates.
“We provide treatment for sexually transmitted infections, HIV and hormone therapy for transgender people who are transitioning.”
Gracie is an 1199 Delegate and RN who works at a Planned Parenthood of Greater NY clinic in New York City which has been experiencing ever-growing patient numbers since Roe v Wade was overturned.
“We’ve seen an increase for more than a year,” she said. “Every day we have patients from out of state, sometimes multiple patients. Often, they come by themselves. We help them find accommodation. Sedation [during the abortion procedure] requires another person to pick them up, so we need to find volunteers. Sometimes, they take them straight back to the airport.
As a surgical abortion nurse, Gracie administers sedation in the ER and provides support in the recovery room. Since 1976, the Hyde Amendment has blocked federal Medicaid funding for abortion services. But other rightwing attempts to “defund” Planned Parenthood has meant blocking patients who depend on public
health care funds from accessing preventative services like birth control, as well as lifesaving cancer and STD screenings.
Even before any looming cuts to Medicaid, the clinic where Gracie works was forced to lay off their anesthesiologists
“That means that we can only provide moderate sedation, as opposed to heavy sedation, meaning that we can only perform abortions at 19 weeks and 6 days gestation,” she said. “Previously, we could do the procedure up to 24 weeks. In these cases, we were often seeing people who just arrived in the U.S. after traveling for many weeks. There is always a back story.”
The lessons of history are clear. Restricting access to both reproductive and gender-affirming healthcare will not prevent either abortions or gender reassignment from taking place. It will just mean that Black and Brown people who disproportionately rely on clinics that depend on Medicaid will be forced to resort to underground providers at grave risk to their health and well-being.
“People are already dying in Texas from sepsis and miscarriages,” says Janet, an 1199 member who works at the front desk of another New York City provider where gender-affirming care is currently being provided.
“Roughly half of our population depends on Medicaid. We provide care for marginalized communities, especially LGBTQ+ people.”
“Gay marriage was legalized when Barack Obama was president. Less than 20 years later, and we’re looking down the barrel of losing that right again. We thought that we were safe and fine and that Transgender people had been normalized,” added Janet who was assigned male at birth. “Early on, I felt female and I changed my name when I was 25.”
At the clinic where she works as a PCA she helps patients obtain surgery letters, support letters for Medicaid, find voice coaches and navigate support services once their transition surgery is scheduled. She plans to become a behavioral health therapist in the future.
“Roughly half of our population depends on Medicaid. We provide care for marginalized communities, especially LGBTQ+ people,” said Janet.
In Boston, Xenia, works as a bilingual outreach navigator at a similar clinic whose target demographic is people of color who may be unable to access the healthcare they need in other settings. She is very worried about threats to Medicaid funding, which are coming at the same time as the legal restrictions. Trans people are under attack from all sides. Xenia does not want to apply for a new passport in case they confiscate her driver’s license.
“It is so important to take a stand now,” she said, “because if we don’t, the injustices will just keep on coming.”
Note: Some members preferred not to identify the clinics where they worked and only use their first names to protect themselves and their patients.
– Janet, an 1199 PCA, at a clinic in New York City
Gwen, an 1199 Paralegal at WhitmanWalker Health in Washington D.C.
Janet, an 1199er who works at a New York City clinic.
1199 ALLIES IN THEARTS
‘A good union doesn’t have to be dull’
– Mo Foner, 1199 EVP and founder of Bread and Roses
“While we fight for economic gains to meet our members’ material needs, we can also produce cultural programs to enrich their lives and deepen their understanding,” founding 1199 President Leon Davis, once said.
“A good union doesn’t have to be dull,” was the mantra of EVP Moe Foner, the iconic cultural impresario and founder of 1199’s Bread and Roses (B&R) Project. Foner did more than any 1199er to cultivate relationships with a host of progressive artists.
In 1979, Academy Awardwinning actor Jane Fonda appeared alongside Foner at a press conference held inside the Union’s New York City headquarters. Fonda read James Oppenheim’s poem Bread and Roses, recalling the 1912 textile workers strike in Lawrence, Massachusetts.
Undoubtedly, the two most legendary artists widely associated with 1199’s alliance with the arts & entertainment world in the early days were writers, producers, and activists Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee. The celebrated duo were often at the center of productions featuring other acclaimed artists, including Sidney Poitier, Ricardo Montalban, Maya Angelou, and Lee Grant.
In a 1953 black & white silent film about Local 1199 that dramatizes union life, we see members applauding a live performance by two African American artists – novelist and playwright Alice Childress and Beah Richards, later nominated for an Academy Award for her portrayal of Sidney Poitier’s mother in the film Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner?
Shortly after that film was produced, Davis and Dee began
their annual 1199 Negro History Week productions. The first starred Dee and a young Poitier—the first African American to win a Best Actor Oscar. Veteran 1199ers noted how the productions deepened their understanding of, and appreciation for the struggles Black and Brown hospital workers who would soon join the 1199 family faced.
Comedian Dick Gregory, folksinger Pete Seeger, jazz drummer Max Roach, singers Nina Simone and Abby Lincoln, as well as actors Will Geer and John Randolph—all performed throughout the early years of the hospital organizing campaign as well.
During the hospital organizing campaign in 1962, the Committee for Justice to Hospital Workers elected iconic writer James Baldwin as vice-chair. Together with committee chairs A. Philip Randolph and Joseph Monserrat, Baldwin wrote a letter to The New York Times condemning hospital officials’ refusal to permit a unionrepresentation election.
The union also used artists and their work culture to generate public support. In 1967, it produced a celebrated film that movingly dramatized the plight of service workers and the vast improvements that came with unionization.
Like a Beautiful Child was directed and produced by John Schultz, a CBS TV editor who earlier had made Hospital Strike about the 46-day strike that established 1199 as the city’s foremost healthcare union.
The next year, 1199 won the historic hundred-dollar-minimum wage, big improvements in health benefits, and a Training Fund that became the envy of the country’s unions and non-profits.
Music has always been central to 1199. For decades, members arriving at 1199 rallies were greeted by the Bronx R&B band GQ. Other musicians who have performed at 1199 events include jazz great Ella Fitzgerald, South African anti-apartheid activist Miriam Makeba, legendary folk
musician Pete Seeger, blues and folk singer Odetta, Afro-Cuban drummer Mongo Santamaria, and folk musician Joan Baez. During the historic 1963 March on Washington in which she performed with Bob Dylan, Baez took a photo wearing an 1199 cap.
Milton Glaser, who created the iconic “I Love New York” logo, was among the many well-known visual artists who worked with 1199. He was a lifelong friend of Foner and worked closely with Esther Cohen, Foner’s B&R successor. It was Cohen who commissioned Glaser to produce B&R’s popular “ORGANIZE” poster. Glaser was also a member of B&R’s board of advisors.
During B&R’s inaugural year, the union sold out Lincoln Center’s Avery Fisher Hall for Harry Belafonte’s first New York City appearance in 18 years.
“1199 means a great deal to me,” Belafonte told the cheering crowd.
“I come here with passion and sentiment. On every issue worth fighting for, 1199 has been there.
I have to be involved with 1199 as long as there is an 1199.”
In 2011, Belafonte assumed leadership of B&R when he was 84-years-old. He held that position until his death in 2023.
In recent years, some of the loudest applause at 1199 events has been reserved for actor-activist Danny Glover.
“I’m here to be with the people who are sick and tired of being sick and tired—who want to sit down
“I’m
here to be with the people who are sick and tired of being sick and tired, who want to sit down with the employer and say, ‘Let’s talk about what’s fair. Let’s talk about what’s being done to decimate the working class.’”
– Actor/Activist Danny Glover.
with the employer and say, ‘Let’s talk about what’s fair,’” he shouted to loud applause a year later at a Pocono Medical Center rally in East Stroudsburg, PA. “‘Let’s talk about what’s being done to decimate the working class.’”
More recently, it’s not unusual to see hip hop artists at 1199 events. Bronx rapper and actor Fat Joe performed at a March 21, 2023 Albany rally to save Medicaid funding. He was cheered on by 15,000 members while being joined on stage by fellow Bronx rapper and songwriter, Remy Ma and Long Island’s Rakim, originally of Eric B and Rakim.
The power that cultural allies can bring to help turbocharge the movement has never been lost on 1199 members. Indeed, turning out in solidarity with fellow union members to protect Union rights and level the playing field with the rich and powerful doesn’t have to be dull.
Opposite page: Jane Fonda hugs a textile union member at an event held in the Union’s Bread and Roses gallery.
Top, left to right: folk singer Joan Baez, an 1199 ally. Writers, producers and activists Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee. Folk singer Pete Seeger, who performed during the early years of the hospital organizing campaign.
Patricia Sinclair, an 1199 CNA at the Actors Fund Home in New Jersey said: “I get along with most if not all of my co-workers. It is an excellent place to work. We are like family here, and we respect each other. The administration looks out for workers who care, and they listen to our concerns.”
