Upheaval in the Quiet Zone: 1199SEIU and the Politics of Health Care Unionism

This new second edition updates the dramatic story of 1199SEIU, an insurgent labour union that eventually established itself as a vital force in the modern labour movement. When SEIU president Andrew Stern laid plans in 2006 for a new national health care workers union that would both 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.