In memory of Dr. Martin Luther King

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. often called District 1199 “my favorite union.” This special friendship began in the late 1950s and early ‘60s when 1199 launched large organizing drives and strikes by NYC hospital workers.

The Vietnam War brought Dr. King even closer to 1199, the first union in the US to actively oppose the war, as we worked together to bring about peace. Coretta Scott King also served as honorary chairperson of our national hospital organizing drive in 1969.

Speaking to 1199 members in 1968 — just weeks before his death — Dr. King highlighted how a hospital janitor is just as important as the physician in protecting patient health.

“You see, no labor is really menial unless you’re not getting adequate wages. People are always talking about menial labor.” he continued. “But if you’re getting a good wage, as I know that through some unions they’ve brought it up...that isn’t menial labor. What makes it menial is the income, the wages.”

Today 1199ers carry on the struggle for civil rights and equality at work and in the community — from fighting to win recognition of the King holiday at work, as Yale-New Haven Hospital dietary workers did, to speaking out against police brutality in our neighborhoods.