Upsetting the Apple Cart
Upsetting the Apple Cart
Black and Puerto Rican Hospital Workers, 1959–1962
This chapter examines a series of strikes by low-income hospital workers in New York City between 1959 and 1962. Efforts by the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), Local 1199, organized workers at New York’s nonprofit hospitals. The campaign started in 1959 and culminated in 1962 when workers gained union recognition and collective bargaining rights. Victory did not come easily, and hospital workers went on strike more than once. These strikes built and strengthened interracial alliances as white labor leaders, Hispanic activists, unionists, and political leaders, black unionists, civil rights leaders, and black nationalists all played a role in the push to unionize. The most lasting relationships between blacks and Latinos were forged when these workers shared social identities and specific working conditions.
Keywords: strikes, hospital workers, New York City, collective bargaining, blacks, Latinos, unionists, civil rights leaders, black nationalists
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