Upheaval in the Quiet Zone: 1199/SEIU and the Politics of Healthcare Unionism

The Working Class in American History

by Leon Fink, Brian Greenberg

This expanded second edition of Upheaval in the Quiet Zone updates the dramatic story of an insurgent labor union that by the end of the 1980s had established itself as a vital force in the modern labor movement. But even bigger changes were on the way. Overcoming internal divisions that originated in its 1930s-inflected and civil rights-era militancy, 1199SEIU adopted a new strategy of labor-management cooperation to emerge as a key player in state and city politics. When SEIU president Andrew Stern laid plans in 2006 for a new national health care workers union that would simultaneously reach out to the unorganized and campaign for universal, national health insurance, he turned to 1199 president Dennis Rivera--and the 1199 political model--to lead the effort. With new material that updates the union's history since the 1990s, this book conveys the promise and problems of movement-building in the twenty-first century health care industry.

Genres: Labor, History

366 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 1989

Reviews

[Sara Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

Overall, excellent analysis of a union, the hospital workers union District 1199, that promoted a different kind of unionism than much of the labor movement, one that focused on connecting with social movements and challenged racial inequality as a fundamental part of its organizing. The story, however, is complicated, and both Fink and Greenberg do an excellent job of addressing some of these complexities. For instance, while the union promoted a larger social vision, it represented people of color and women, and yet the leadership of the union, for decades, was made up of white men. Also, the union had a largely undemocratic structure in which the presidency was invested with an inordinate amount of power. The question remains, how does union democracy, or the lack thereof, contribute to the vitality of the union movement? I think the authors address this question in interesting ways, but could go much farther and include the question of union democracy as a central theme that runs throughout the book. More to say, particularly about gender and the relationship between the union and advocates of black power and third world politics, but I'll leave it at this for now.

[Michelle T · Rating 4 out of 5]

This text provides a comprehensive historical analysis of healthcare unionism, beginning with its conception in the 1960s. Upheaval illustrates how a once-robust union has been slowly decimated and fragmented into an organization that now serves the interests of a high-ranking medical minority, once again leaving the poorest hospital workers forgotten. It truly puts into perspective the power of respectability politics, bureaucratic concessions, and the subsequent loss of an ideological framework in the demise of political movements.

"the fact that so many union leaders have become money hungry, taking on the grossest features of business society, despoiling the union treasures for private gain.. one finds among union leaders an appalling arrogance and high-handedness in their relation to the rank and file, which derives from the corruption of power"

This shift makes Rosa Luxemburg’s analysis of political appeal all the more relevant: "With the entry of a socialist into the government, and class domination continuing to exist, the bourgeois government doesn’t transform itself into a socialist government, but a socialist transforms himself into a bourgeois minister."

[Chuck · Rating 5 out of 5]

one of the greatest stories in the history of the labor movement

[Adam · Rating 5 out of 5]

An essential read on the history of 1199.