1199 Tops Back Covid Killer Cuomo

While many on the liberal left are embracing Zohran Mamdani, union leaders in NYC have largely lined up behind front-runner Andrew Cuomo in anticipation of future favors. An early endorser was 1199’s George Gresham—his parting gift to the bosses’ Democratic Party. But a Cuomo mayoralty promises only more misery for working-class New York.

Gresham’s endorsement of Cuomo has struck a nerve with the 1199 membership—for damn good reason. During the pandemic, Cuomo was out front squabbling with Trump over how best to save the day for the bosses while the working class and impoverished masses suffered the consequences at the hands of Covid Killer Cuomo. As governor, he had overseen the closure and consolidation of hospitals across the state. Then, his murderous decision to place Covid patients into nursing homes killed untold thousands while the nursing home owners made millions.

With the help of the 1199 and other union bureaucracies, Cuomo pushed that “we’re all in this together.” This was to blackmail workers, especially in healthcare, to eat abuse and never fight back because doing so would supposedly put lives at risk. But the only way to provide quality care was and is to take the fight to the bosses, who were squeezing workers and killing patients. The 1199 bureaucracy’s enforcement of this blackmail wasn’t an accident, but an extension of the rationale behind the union’s contractual “no strike” clause. Both are a straitjacket to keep workers submissive to the interests of the bosses.

Not so long ago, Gresham was calling for Cuomo’s resignation in response to sexual harassment allegations, not his many attacks on the working class. Since then, the bureaucracy has forgotten the past and flipped the script, all to help revive Cuomo’s political career. Gresham has been singing Cuomo’s praises, saying NYC needs “leaders who will stand up for working people, fight for good union jobs.” But Cuomo has done everything he can to stomp on the working class. From imposing a wage freeze on public-sector workers to raising the retirement age, he and the rest of the Democrats inflicted serious pain that drove workers toward Trump. No matter how the 1199 bureaucracy spins it, Cuomo and the Democrats have proven themselves enemies of the working class.

The 1199 bureaucracy hails Cuomo for getting hazard pay for healthcare workers. Sure, workers needed to be paid more, but this was a good trade-off for the bosses, who refused to do anything about short-staffing and burnout—which remain widespread today. No amount of pay can hide the fact that healthcare is in a decrepit state because it is in the tight grip of a few families that have a monopoly over the industry. And they maintain their grip as Democratic politicians further privatize healthcare. In the process, workers are ground down as the union leadership does all it can to keep them chained to their oppressors.

Healthcare workers who disapprove of the union’s endorsement hope that Gresham’s successor Yvonne Armstrong will rescind it. But even if she does, none of the Democratic contenders will do anything to advance the interests of the working class either. The 1199 and entire SEIU bureaucracy have long been a gear in the Democratic Party machine, spending millions to get these bosses’ politicians elected. Armstrong’s politics are no different from Gresham’s, centered on the suicidal plan of partnership between workers and management. This “partnership” has resulted in the decline of both the conditions of the working class and the state of healthcare.

With 1199’s main contract expiring next year, the hospital bosses are salivating at the thought of taking away more from workers and making permanent the pandemic-era short-staffing and speedup—especially now that Trump has declared open season on unions. But the 1199 leadership says nothing about organizing a real fight. Instead, they call to elect and lobby Democratic politicians to stop budget cuts. This will only bring more disaster for the working class.

The 200,000 members of 1199 in the five boroughs and additional 250,000 outside NYC can be a major force for improving conditions and care in the hospitals and defending the working class as a whole. But to unleash this social power requires removing the shackles of the no-strike clause. Rank-and-file 1199 members must demand this clause be ripped out of the contract and that the union’s ties to Cuomo and the Democrats also be cut.

This is crucial in order for the union to wage the urgently needed defensive battles against the healthcare bosses and the Trump administration. It also would expose those union leaders who would rather do the dirty work of the bosses than fight for the interests of the workers. This would not only bring forward class-struggle militants as leaders of 1199, but also inspire workers in other unions to fight for independence from the capitalist parties, both Democrat and Republican.

There are many workers who are fed up with their conditions and the way 1199SEIU is being run. The Hospital Workers Building Union Power committee has been fighting for the very perspective laid out above. This committee is looking to engage with workers who want to fight to change their situation and the state of healthcare. You can check them out here: @hwbup_nyc.