Marilyn Albert, RN, was, from 1974-2003, a member, shop steward, and staff organizer in Local 1199, which represents hospital and health care workers in New York City. She was an active participant in the Save Our Union Movement in Local 1199 during the 1980s that challenged the administration of president Doris Turner. (In 1983, she was fired from her nursing job, allegedly in retaliation for her union activism.) The Save Our Union movement was composed of progressive union activists, including Communists, who held that the Turner administration had abandoned the radical politics, militant stance on labor issues, and inter-racial/ethnic solidarity that many felt had often been in evidence under the leadership of Local 1199's founding president, Leon Davis, and that Turner's administration had also stifled dissent within the union. After the 1989 election of Dennis Rivera as president of Local 1199, Albert became a staff organizer. In the years after the 1989 election, Local 1199 first became the National Union of Hospital and Nursing Home Employees, Local 1199 Drug & Hospital Union (New York, N.Y.), and in 1998, Service Employees International Union. Local 1199 (New York, N.Y.). Albert has also worked with the South African National Education, Health, and Allied Workers Union in 1996 and 1997 and was a founder of an anti-war caucus following the September 11th attacks, called 1199ers for Peace and Justice, which later joined US Labor Against War. Presently (2010) she works as a National Organizer for National Nurses United.
From the guide to the Marilyn Albert Local 1199 Papers, c. 1980-c. 2000, (Tamiment Library / Wagner Archives)
Marilyn Albert was a Communist Party USA activist in New York City during the 1970s-1980s, and was part of the "Initiative" group, a network of "Gorbachevite" reform Party members, active ca. 1989-1990, who constituted a large minority of Party members, most of whom left the Party after their political defeat at the Party's 25th national convention in early 1991, and went on to form the Committees of Correspondence (now the Committees of Correspondence for Democracy and Socialism). A registered nurse, Albert also was, from 1974-2003, a member, shop steward, and staff organizer in Local 1199, which represents hospital and health care workers in New York City. She was an active participant in the Save Our Union Movement in Local 1199 during the 1980s that challenged the administration of president Doris Turner. (In 1983, she was fired from her nursing job, allegedly in retaliation for her union activism.) The Save Our Union movement was composed of progressive union activists, including Communists, who held that the Turner administration had abandoned the radical politics, militant stance on labor issues, and inter-racial/ethnic solidarity that many felt had often been in evidence under the leadership of Local 1199's founding president, Leon Davis, and that Turner's administration had also stifled dissent within the union. After the 1989 election of Dennis Rivera as president of Local 1199, Albert became a staff organizer. In the years after the 1989 election, Local 1199 first became the National Union of Hospital and Nursing Home Employees, Local 1199 Drug & Hospital Union (New York, N.Y.), and in 1998, Service Employees International Union. Local 1199 (New York, N.Y.). Albert has also worked with the South African National Education, Health, and Allied Workers Union in 1996 and 1997 and was a founder of an anti-war caucus following the September 11th attacks, called 1199ers for Peace and Justice, which later joined US Labor Against War. Presently (2010) she works as a National Organizer for National Nurses United.
From the guide to the Marilyn Albert Communist Party of the United States of America Papers, Bulk, 1989-1992, 1947-1992, (Tamiment Library / Wagner Archives)
