(excerpt) In 1958, a proposal to organize hospital workers was made. Local 1199 voted to commit their Union's money to help the hospital workers win their Union rights. The Union expanded rapidly, forming the Hospital Division. The Guild Division was born in 1964 for clerical, professional, and technical employees. Soon afterwards, the nurses joined and prompted the creation of the RN Division.
In 1969, the 1199 National Organizing Committee developed to organize health care workers throughout the country. The first major national organizing event came in March of 1969, as hospital workers struck for 113 days to win the right to organize.
In November of 1973, the National Organization was formally established at its first Constitutional Convention and renamed the National Union of Hospital and Health Care Employees. Leon Davis was elected as the first president, and was succeeded by Henry Nicholas in 1981.
Under the leadership of Henry Nicholas, the National Union received a direct charter from the AFL-CIO in October of 1984. It became the only health care Union with such a charter.
In 1989, in an effort to increase its political strength, the National Union affiliated with the 1.3 million members of the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) . Today, NUHHCE and AFSCME represent over 375,000 health care employees of all qualifications. ***********************
http://www.seiu1199.org/ourlocal/history.cfm
(excerpt) District 1199's next big step came in 1989 when members voted overwhelmingly to affiliate with the 1.4 million members of the Service Employees International Union, which is the largest health care union in the country and now the largest and fastest growing union in the AFL-CIO. District 1199 grew again in 2001 when over 4,000 members from District 925 in Cleveland and Cincinnati made a historical vote to merge with District 1199, bringing new industries and ideas into the union. Now, aside from health care and social services, SEIU/District 1199 represents Head Start, Library and Higher Education workers. But the merging didn't end there.
************************** National Union of Hospital and Health Care Employees split over affiliation, some of it went with SEIU (the New York and now multistate piece) and some with AFSMCE (various piece here and there). Most of these various pieces still use the moniker of 1199 NUHHCE in some way.
Alan Jacobson