Activists from the pharmacists’ union began to organize non-professional hospital workers in the late 1950s, and in 1959 a strike against seven private hospitals set the stage for a massive organizing drive. Large numbers of poorly paid workers, the majority of them black and Puerto Rican women, joined Health and Hospital Workers Local 1199. These workers are picketing in front of Mount Sinai Hospital.

This image is featured in one of the bronze historical plaques installed in Union Square to commemorate the history of labor in the square.  See the “Culture of Solidarity” plaque in our exhibit on Union Square.

Photograph from 1199/SEIU Archives, Kheel Center, Cornell University.