Retail, Wholesale, and Department Store Union. Local 1199 Drug and Hospital Employees Union (New York, N.Y.)

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.

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.