New York
1199SEIU has some 200,000 members in New York City and Long Island. The Capital/Hudson Valley Division of 1199SEIU covers the northern suburbs of New York City on both sides of the Hudson River. The Upstate New York Division of 1199SEIU is the voice of health care employees in western, central, and northern New York State.
1199 began as New York City pharmacists’ Union in 1932 and New York City remains, to this day, the primary base of the organization. In 1959, the largely male, Jewish drugstore Union began to transform itself by launching drives to organize the city’s voluntary, not-for profit hospitals and their primarily female, African-American and Latino workers.
