Series 4. Montefiore Hospital interviews, 1975-1976, bulk 1975.

ArchivalResource

National Union of Hospital and Health Care Employees. Series 4. Montefiore Hospital interviews, 1975-1976, bulk 1975.

Series 4. Montefiore Hospital interviews, 1975-1976, bulk 1975.

http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/64755455

Interviews with fourteen individuals associated with the organization of Montefiore Hospital in New York City include 1199 organizers and delegates: Thelma Bowles (LPN), Gouvenir Cooper (mortuary attendant), Salvadore Cordero (pantryman); Betty Rosoff (laboratory technician), Al Kosloski (maintenance man), Morris Hodara (laboratory physicist); Ken Downs (chef), and Emerito Cruz (nutrition attendant); as well as members of Montefiore Hospital management: Martin Cherkasky (administrator), Morris Katz (administrator), Victor Weingarten (public relations consultant), Irving Stern (laundry supervisor), Charles Balancia (chief engineer), and Sarah Goldstein (director, Ladies Auxiliary Volunteers). The interviews examine the respondents' personal backgrounds, education and previous union experience in the United States, Puerto Rico, and the West Indies. Discussed are the characteristics and attitudes of hospital workers, including the racial composition of these workers; membership participation in union elections; workers' understanding of the labor movement; the social relations between non-professional workers at the hospital; the red-baiting of Montefiore staff; the effects of the Korean War on workers' political consciousness; contacts of hospital workers with the Urban League; minority workers' and white workers' support of union organizing; workers' identification with 1199; worker morale and job satisfaction; friendships and development of work groups in hospitals; visibility and accessibility of supervisors; and the needs and attitudes of volunteers. Issues concerning pre-union working conditions at Montefiore include floor duties of licensed practical nurses; the family atmosphere among nursing staff; patient care; nurse and doctor relationships with hospital workers; the low status and salaries of nursing staff; hospital wages and working conditions; American Labor Party organizing activities; union organizing of hospitals in the 1950's; the attempts of the Teamsters to organize Montefiore workers; a comparison of hospital work with construction and industrial work; the working conditions in city hospitals; meal allowance; wage adjustments; promotions; changes in cafeteria arrangements; the performance of non-hospital work; and the distinct trade identity of engineers and maintenance men. Other topics discussed include fringe benefits; grievances and petitions without collective bargaining rights; work assignment; the organizing campaign of blue collar workers by United Public Workers of America (UPWA) Local 444 (1949); jurisdictional disputes between American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) and Teamsters in organizing New York City hospitals; Teamsters Union opposition to membership participation in the peace movement; dormitory facilities for hospital workers; turnover and absenteeism of hospital workers; charity aspects of hospital work; patient complaints regarding the quality of care; and racial tensions between workers and supervisors. Aspects of post-union working conditions include discussion of the administration of the collective agreement; the establishment of organizing committees, union representatives and delegate elections in hospital departments; the union's effect on personnel policy, job security, grievance procedure, workers' standard of living, morale, pride in work, patient care, and professionalization of supervisory policies; workers' reaction to the collective agreement; position classifications; the union's role in workers' education; the need for trained rank and file leadership; dues collection; the political consciousness of West Indian workers and fears of reprisal for union activity; and the lack of political power of unions without the right to strike. Other topics discussed include the industrial nature of hospital laundry service; social security benefits for hospital workers; training programs for LPN's; training supervisors in labor-management relations; effects of the civil rights movement on the political consciousness of hospital workers; the ratio of professional workers to patients; Mayor Wagner's and Mayor Lindsay's labor relations policies; union organizing in New York City in the 1960's; Rockefeller's intervention in strike settlements; opposition to unionization of Lenox Hill Hospital; cost cutting policies in New York City hospitals; medical education costs borne by consumers; wage differentials of public vs. voluntary hospitals; collective bargaining and mediation strategies; third party payers' participation in collective negotiations; and the effects of the strike on hospital social relations. Analysis of the conduct of the organizing campaign at Montefiore Hospital includes discussion of the organizing strategy for shift workers; nurses' and lab technicians' identification with professional unions; the politics of organizing hospital workers; the conduct of local union headquarters and organizing meetings; hospital workers' right to organize, the right to bargain collectively, and the right to strike; the duty to patients; setting up organizing teams in hospital departments; wildcat strikes; and 1199's 46-day strike against six New York City hospitals (1959). Other topics discussed include worker solidarity; organizing activities; the relations between doctors and union organizers; leafleting; participation of District 65 of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU) members in organizing and demonstrations; community support for the union; organizing blue and white collar workers; the development of blue collar worker militancy and leadership; the involvement of Eleanor Roosevelt, Herbert Lehman, Rockefeller, various congressmen and politicians in hospital unionization; the distribution of radical political literature at Montefiore hospital; the use of volunteers as scabs; the conduct of pickets; Mayor Wagner's tactic of appropriating city funds to subsidize hospital costs; Abe Beame's and Mayor Wagner's role in settling the hospital strike; the role of the League of Voluntary Hospitals, the United Hospital Fund and the Federation of Jewish Philanthropies in hospital unionization; and the jailing of labor leaders for contempt of court. Discussions relating to the administration, supervisors, Board of Trustees and physicians at Montefiore include supervisors' objections to the wearing of union buttons and organizing during hours of work; unprofessional treatment of LPNs; meetings of 1199 delegates; the hospital Board of Trustees' and physicians' views on unions, politics, negotiating strategy and management reprisals; home care; group practice; the social and communal role of health care; and the development of Montefiore into a scientific institution. Other topics discussed include chronic vs. acute patient care; per diem patient care expenses; trustees' control over administrative policies; inability to pay and hospital finances; hospital appeals to Mayor Wagner for increased costs subsidization; construction and plant design of hospitals; coordination of volunteers and their effect on work assignments and staff relationships; the ethnic composition of volunteers; the administration's preparation for a strike; communications and relations of the Montefiore administration with the local community; the comparison between the politics of German and Russian Jewish philanthropists and business interests; third party payers and financing health care; and the organizational structures of modern research, teaching and acute care hospitals. 1199 staff and officers as leaders and organizers are examined as are the following subjects: 1199 contacts and information networks during the organizing campaign; organizing tactics and contacts with UPWA, the Teamsters and Maimonides Hospital; effects of the Montefiore campaign on 1199's structure and the launching of an organizing campaign for hospital workers in New York City; the strategy of organizing Hispanic workers; and jurisdictional disputes between 1199 and Service Employees' International Union (SEIU) Local 144. Also discussed are Leon Davis' political goals in organizing hospitals and his background in the Drug and Pharmacy Union; the tactics of creating crisis conditions, and of organizing hospitals affiliated with the Federation of Jewish Philanthropies; anti-union sentiment among Montefiore workers; the racial composition and departmental distribution of 1199 supporters; the break of the no-strike pledge; 1199's social activities; and training and upgrading programs for hospital workers.

14 transcripts (518 p.)

Cornell University Library