Upheaval in the Quiet Zone: 1199/SEIU and the Politics of Healthcare Unionism(Working Class in American History)

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.

Table of Contents:
Introduction to the Second Edition   ix Introduction   xi 1   Before the Union: The Hospital Worker as Involuntary Philanthropist   1 2   Awakening at Montefiore: The Hospital That Refused to Fight   28 3   The Brewing Storm: Organizing from the Ground Up   44 4   The Battle of '59: Anatomy of a Hospital Strike   63 5   Staying Alive: The Search for Legal Recognition   91 6   Coming of Age: Building an Effective Union in the 1960s   112 7   Stayed on Freedom: A Labor Crusade behind the Magnolia Curtain   129 8   High Expectations and Harsh Realities: Confronting a Changing Health Care System in the 1970s   159 9   1199 Exceptionalism: Taking Stock of the First Generation   181 10   Union Power, Soul Power: When the Solution Becomes the Problem   209 11   Picking Up the Pieces: 1199's Recipe for Revival in the Dennis Rivera Era   244 12   1199 Exceptionalism Revisited: The Politics of Partnership   262 Epilogue: SEIU Healthcare---Rx for Growth or a Family Feud?   287 Notes   301 List of Interviews   349 Index   351

About the Author :
Leon Fink is Distinguished Professor of History at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Brian Greenberg is Jules L. Plangere Jr. Chair of American Social History at Monmouth University.

Review :
"In updating their classic history of Local 1199, Fink and Greenberg show how one of the nation's most dynamic unions has navigated the shoals of a health care industry in constant turmoil and a labor movement trying to reinvent itself. A must read for those trying to understand labor today." Joshua B. Freeman, author of Working-Class New York: Life and Labor Since World War II "Fascinating ... A must for anyone concerned with the organization of the working poor." Michael Harrington "A timely, illuminating, and indispensable account of the politics of health care and how one union transformed the industry. Taking 1199's story into the present day, Fink and Greenberg assess the new service unionism's promise for revitalizing the labor movement and the challenges it faces in creating a better health care system for us all."Dorothy Sue Cobble, author of Dishing It Out: Waitresses and Their Unions in the Twentieth Century