By Kenneth Aaron, Times Union, Albany, N.Y. Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News
Aug. 19--Dennis Rivera is ready to make his union's presence felt in Albany.
No doubt, that presence already is felt within the halls of the Capitol. As president of Service Employees International Union Local 1199, the 220,000-member health care workers' union headquartered in Manhattan, Rivera is widely considered one of the most influential people in the state's health care system.
Over the past year, though, 1199 has begun a push into the Capital Region that Rivera hopes will change the face of the area's largely union-free health care institutions.
'We are now marching north, and so basically Albany is the focus of our effort,' Rivera said in a telephone interview last week.
Local 1199 reached the Capital Region in July 2001. Then 205,000 workers strong, it took over SEIU Local 200D, stretching its borders north to Canada and west to Amsterdam.
Now, 1199 is set to annex the entire western half of New York, if the SEIU local currently there -- 1199 Upstate -- ratifies a merger. That group is similarly named, but run under different management. Rivera, however, is president of the New York State Council of SEIU, which counts 1199 Upstate as a member.
Rivera is as soft-spoken as 1199 is brassy. While he said the events of Sept. 11 put a damper on the organization drives the union planned for the Capital Region, it still has added five institutions and 1,000 workers since July 2001. In addition, the local has filed far more complaints with the National Labor Relations Board than its predecessor had filed in the year before stepping aside -- 16 complaints against Capital Region health care centers or petitions to organize versus six filed by 200D between June 2000 and July 2001.
The local's Albany staff has grown from five workers in July 2001 to about 20 today; Rivera expects to double that figure by year's end. After Labor Day, Rivera said 1199 would probably begin a multimillion-dollar television, radio and print campaign to introduce Capital Region workers to the local.
And the union soon will move its local offices from a side street two miles from the Capitol to within walking distance of the state's power hub.
Daniel Sisto, president of the Healthcare Association of New York State in East Greenbush, understands why 1199 is casting its gaze northward: 'The workplace environment has been stressful; the financial pressures have made it difficult to stay competitive with private industry, setting up a situation where the health care field is seen as ripe for union penetration,' said Sisto, whose trade group represents hospitals and other health care institutions outside New York City.
After unionizing most of New York City's hospitals -- 1199 currently represents 95 percent of the hospitals in the five boroughs -- it moved into Yonkers and the mid-Hudson Valley. Rivera boasted of the group's success there. And upstate became an obvious next step.
'Our goal is to try to become a 300,000-member organization in the next couple of years,' he said.
That's not a comforting thought to some watching the seemingly inexorable push.
'These hospitals have been in business for over 150 years, and they've operated without unions very successfully,' said Gary Fitzgerald, president of the Iroquois Healthcare Alliance, a Clifton Park-based group that represents 58 upstate hospitals.
Fitzgerald acknowledges that in recent years, as his members have suffered mightily under shrinking Medicaid reimbursements, they have not had success in winning more money. And he knows that the resulting financial pain leaves an open door for organized labor to step through, proposing its own solutions.
'I think they're taking advantage of that, because it's been very difficult under the current government reimbursement systems to pay workers what we would like to pay them,' Fitzgerald said. 'It's hard to give raises when the people who are controlling your revenue aren't allowing you to give raises.'
Currently, the only local institution 1199 has petitioned to organize is Albany Medical Center, which has fought off union representation in the past -- including efforts by 1199 to get in -- and is girding for another skirmish. Albany Med's last union fight was a fierce battle that was lost last year by New York State United Teachers.
Earlier this summer, the NLRB heard arguments to determine whether 1199 could tailor its organizing efforts to just Albany Medical Center Hospital, or whether it would need to tackle the entire medical center.
The hearing took 40 days -- about 40 times longer than the average NLRB hearing. A decision still is pending.
'Our opinion on unionization remains the same as it's always been,' said Albany Med spokesman Greg McGarry. 'We just feel our employees, our management team, are the strongest advocates for the center.'
Rivera wants in on that discussion. 'We need to alleviate the fears of our employers in the Capital Region who may perceive that we are evil incarnate and want to take their managerial rights away,' he said. 'We need to reassure management that we need to be their partners.'
Asked to make an imaginary 60-second pitch to James Barba, Albany Med's chief executive, Rivera jumped right in: 'We are your best ally; we are your strongest ally,' he said. 'As soon as you realize that, the better you will be, your institution will be, and your health care workers will be.'
Andrew Cruikshank is chief executive of the Fort Hudson Nursing Home in Fort Edward. In June, employees ratified a contract after 1199 lobbed several complaints at management.
'I can tell you they're aggressive, that's for sure,' Cruikshank said. The union is ready to use the media to advance its cause, he said, and 'use whatever means necessary to send a message to their employee base.'
He recognizes 1199's political strength and is ready to piggy-back on that 'when our objectives are consistent.'
And many times, Fort Hudson and 1199 are fighting for the same things, Cruikshank said. But while he considers the union's mission to be mostly to benefit its workers, an institution's operators 'have a little broader view.'
'We not only want to improve the lives of health care employees, we also want to be able to improve services, too,' he said. 'That's not usually on the labor unions' agenda.'
Several other Capital Region institutions that have worked with both 200D and 1199 either did not return telephone calls last week or declined to comment on 1199. 'It's a touchy subject,' said one person familiar with both unions who asked not to be identified. Indeed, 1199 is far more aggressive than 200D, this person acknowledged, adding, 'They're not afraid to use whatever they perceive would be best for (their members).'
Felecia Jordan, a certified nurse assistant at the Albany County Nursing Home, has worked for 1199 in New York City and was happy when 200D disappeared.
'I find that 1199 is a lot stronger,' she said. Earlier this year, workers ratified a new contract with the nursing home -- one she said 200D wouldn't have won, with healthy pay raises and other perks.
That already has made a difference in the number of people who want to work there, she said. 'The CNAs are coming because they see that the money is there,' she said.
Ed Morache, the nursing home's executive director, said he has worked closely with 1199 since he arrived in April. So far, the institution has worked 'more or less as partners' with the union, he said.
'I think they care about the welfare of their employees and therefore the welfare of our residents,' Morache said.
Currently, 1199 is working with the nursing home to put together a program to train licensed practical nurses. Rivera wants other institutions to feel that 1199 will put its significant resources to work for them.
'Their reputation is one of a very powerful union and a very powerful lobby,' Morache said of the union. 'They do have an ear of people in government.'
Some say the union has too much sway. 'Dennis (Rivera) has been tremendously successful in Albany, to the point where he has dominated health care policy,' Iroquois Healthcare's Fitzgerald said.
Sisto, of HANYS, agreed. 'I don't think any one union leader or any lobbyist or association executive should have such a disproportionate influence on health care policy that it mutes all other voices,' he said.
Both men worry that 1199's power creates a funding gap between union hospitals and nonunion ones.
Not only is 1199 having trouble winning over the hearts of upstate managers, but area health care workers are also skeptical about many of the union's claims, Rivera said.
Job security, free health care coverage, pension plans, child care, summer camp programs -- all these things are possible, he said. 'There is a record of our achieving the things that I talked about,' he added. 'It's real.'
Jordan, the Albany County Nursing Home employee, saw the same trepidation when 1199 moved in.
'You tend to get comfortable with things, but once we started talking to them about the different changes, how 1199 ran New York, they began to see,' she said of her colleagues. 'They like that. They know that there is power behind it.'
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(c) 2002, Times Union, Albany, N.Y. Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.
