© 2013 Kheel Center for Labor-Management Documentation and Archives, Cornell University Library
DESCRIPTIVE SUMMARY
Title:
Retail, Wholesale, and Department Store Union. Local 1199 Drug and Hospital Employees Union (New York, N.Y.), 1937-1976,
bulk 1950-1974
Collection Number:
5206
Creator:
Retail, Wholesale, and Department Store Union. Local 1199 Drug and Hospital Employees Union (New York, N.Y.)
Quantity:
106.6 linear ft.
Forms of Material:
Correspondence, reports, publications.
Repository:
Kheel Center for Labor-Management Documentation and Archives, Cornell University Library
Abstract:
The collection consists of correspondence, memoranda, reports, collective agreements, strike materials, grievance reports,
arbitration awards and decisions, publications, and memorabilia.
Language:
Collection material in English
ORGANIZATIONAL HISTORY
Records of the National Union of Hospital and Health Care Employees document the evolution of the Retail, Wholesale and Department
Store drugstore local, representing pharmacists and drug clerks in New York City, into an international union of non-professional
and professional workers in voluntary and non-profit health institutions, including hospitals, clinics and nursing homes,
as well as drugstores.
Between 1933 and 1957, 1199 functioned as a drugstore local with its membership growing to 5,000 workers employed in independent
and chain drugstores throughout the New York metropolitan area. With its success in organizing workers in Montefiore Hospital
in New York City, the union began a massive campaign to organize workers in voluntary and non-profit hospitals in the New
York area, a large proportion of whom were black or Hispanic.
In 1973, the national union was established with locals in other states, including Pennsylvania, Maryland, South and North
Carolina, Connecticut, New Jersey, and Massachusetts. The union combined organizing efforts with civil rights organizations,
in an effort to achieve mutual political goals. Throughout the period of these records, the union was led by Leon Davis (president
of Local 1199 and of the national union) whose administration guided the union's political and social activities.
COLLECTION DESCRIPTION
The collection consists of correspondence, memoranda, reports, collective agreements, strike materials, grievance reports,
arbitration awards and decisions, publications, and memorabilia.
The records document the union's programs of health, welfare and pension benefits, training programs and worker upgrading,
its involvement with the social, political, and cultural milieu of its members, lobbying activities for collective bargaining
and protected status for health care workers, and the application of industrial organizing and negotiation strategies to health
care institutions.
SUBJECTS
Names:
Retail, Wholesale, and Department Store Union.
National Union of Hospital and Health Care Employees. District 1199.
Retail, Wholesale, and Department Store Union. Local 1199 Drug and Hospital Employees Union (New York, N.Y.)
Subjects:
Labor unions--Health facilities--United States.
Medical personnel.
Hospitals--Staff.
Form and Genre Terms:
Memorabilia.