A Union for Appalachian Healthcare Workers: The Radical Roots and Hard Fights of Local 1199 by John Hennen

Abstract

Reviewed by: A Union for Appalachian Healthcare Workers: The Radical Roots and Hard Fights of Local 1199 by John Hennen O. Jennifer Dixon-McKnight A Union for Appalachian Healthcare Workers: The Radical Roots and Hard Fights of Local 1199. By John Hennen. West Virginia and Appalachia. (Morgantown: West Virginia University Press, 2021. Pp. x, 260. Paper, $29.99, ISBN 978-1-952271-24-3; cloth, $99.00, ISBN 978-1-952271-23-6.) A Union for Appalachian Healthcare Workers: The Radical Roots and Hard Fights of Local 1199 is an important contribution to the scholarship that examines the complexities of labor organizing. Utilizing both local and national lenses, John Hennen traces the evolution of Local 1199 from its early days as a union for pharmacists and drugstore employees founded in Depression-era New York City through the merger that joined it with the Service Employees International Union in 1989. Hennen positions the members of Local 1199’s chapters in Appalachia as some of the twentieth century’s [End Page 398] most notable organizers of healthcare workers, and he explores their radicalism and local activism. Labor scholars continue to do the work of expanding the discourse and exploring the complex nature of a history that has yet to be fully uncovered. The radical roots and contested origins of both Local 1199 and its early leaders provide a backdrop for its progress as a militant organization. It is important to note that the union’s radicalism was multifaceted. Hennen discusses the communist backgrounds of early Local 1199 leaders. Historically, the interests of communism and unionization have intersected; however, Hennen argues that this association became an obstacle that members of Local 1199 had to strategically overcome. Building on its communist roots, Local 1199 radicalized labor organizing by focusing on the plight of New York hospital workers during the 1950s and 1960s. Hennen asserts that Local 1199 organized hospital workers during a time when it was not customary to do so. According to the author, hospital workers were considered “forgotten workers” by midcentury organizers, and Local 1199 broke down barriers when they began the work of organizing this particular group (p. 18). Hennen positions the student-led activism of the 1960s and 1970s and the civil rights movement as the backdrop to Local 1199’s efforts to organize Appalachian healthcare workers. He chronicles the influence of Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), “the most visible, vocal, publicized, and chastised student mass movement on the political left” of the period, and describes how its initial leftist stance on inclusion, equality, and accountability in American government later expanded to include grievances of the American working class (p. 40). SDS and Local 1199 formed new alliances in the mid-to-late 1960s around a shared concern for the plight of working Americans. Hennen also highlights the inextricable links between the labor and civil rights movements by examining Local 1199’s “Union Power, Soul Power” campaign (p. 49). The 1969 Charleston, South Carolina, hospital workers strike, the union’s first attempt at organizing in the South under this banner, and its subsequent efforts to eradicate the ills that plagued the experiences of African American healthcare workers drew criticism for the union’s attention to issues of race. Hennen argues that, despite these attacks, Local 1199 utilized its connections to student-led organizations and the civil rights movement along with the skills, tactics, and ideals ultimately born from those relationships to build successful campaigns for Appalachian workers. Critiques of this project are minimal. Hennen’s work to shed light on Local 1199 from both national and local perspectives is commendable. The author uses a wide range of sources to weave together a narrative about the complexities of local labor organizing in tandem with other broad-based movements of that era. Positioning Appalachian healthcare workers at the intersection of Local 1199’s organizing, student-led activism, and the civil rights movement offers an opportunity to examine the most critical aspects of America’s protest tradition. A Union for Appalachian Healthcare Workers is an important contribution to the scholarship. [End Page 399] O. Jennifer Dixon-McKnight Winthrop University Copyright © 2023 Southern Historical Association