CityHallNews.com

A Prescription for Political Power
With deep ranks and deep pockets, health care union is potent force

To win, any candidate for any office needs two things: votes and the money to get more votes. With some 300,000 members and its often-remarked on sophisticated approach to politics, 1199, the health-care workers union, provides both in huge amounts, making it one of the city’s and the state’s most potent political forces.

“They are a consistent major player in New York state politics,” said Blair Horner, legislative director of the New York Public Interest Research Group.

At the city level, said Democratic consultant Jerry Skurnick, “they’re probably the most influential union. When they endorse a candidate, they usually bring more resources to that campaign than any other labor organization.”

What has become the largest local union in the world got its start in 1932 with a group of pharmacists and clerks in New York City. In 1998, the union joined with the Service Employees International Union to become 1199/S.E.I.U. Today the union has 300,000 members, 200,000 of whom are in New York City and Long Island.

Much of this has to do with Dennis Rivera, the president of 1199 since 1989. It is during Rivera’s tenure that 1199 has gained more political prominence.

One reason for the strengthened political muscle of 1199, Horner said, is how the union has learned to take on Albany. This has only been enhanced by the collapse of the universal health care debate in Washington, leaving health policy action to the state level. The result, Horner said, is that “1199 has the ability to exert its influence over the capital because it has the combination of a large PAC, a well organized membership and a politically savvy leadership.”

And so the campaign-tinged deal worked out in 2002 between Gov. George Pataki (R) and 1199 that gave union members hundreds of millions of dollars in raises to union members.

“This deal was negotiated in secret to the benefit of the union,” said Horner, who added that “arguably, the motivation on the part of the governor was support for the 2002 gubernatorial election.”

Indeed, 1199 did back Pataki’s 2002 re-election campaign, an unusual move for a union partial to Republicans.

Those who receive the backing of 1199 in New York City, like Bill Perkins (D), the former Council member running for Harlem’s vacated State Senate seat, and Melissa Mark Viverito (D), the newly-elected Council member from East Harlem and the Bronx, say the endorsement gives their campaigns credibility and allows them to tap into the union’s area of expertise.

Perkins, who won the union’s backing for the Senate race in April, called it “one of the most important endorsements that will be made in this race.”

The union endorsed Perkins over a field which included former Manhattan Borough President C. Virginia Fields (D), his most prominent opponent.

Whereas 1199 did not support Perkins in any of his Council campaigns, Fields had had their support in her first bid for borough president back in 1997. This year, Perkins’ nabbing of the union was one of the signs of lacking traction which contributed to her dropping out of the race just before petitioning began.

Did Perkins pledge to take any particular policy stances in return for the endorsement?

“They know my record and that I plan to continue on that path,” Perkins said.

Meanwhile, in the Democratic primary race for the Brooklyn Congressional seat held by retiring Major Owens (D), 1199 has not made an endorsement, even though one of the candidates, Council Member Yvette Clarke, was a youth organizer at 1199. Those watching the race speculate that 1199 is going to stay out of that election, and that this may hurt Clarke.

In explaining how the union makes its endorsements, Jennifer Cunningham, executive vice president of the union, said only in an e-mail statement, “We evaluate candidates based on their support of issues important to our members such as adequate funding for quality affordable health care.”

Typically, unions back incumbents in city races.

“That’s been the tradition in New York for 20 years if not more,” said Skurnick, the Democratic consultant.

“When it’s an open seat or in a primary, then they can choose based on other reasons,” he said.

When the union attempted to endorse Mayor Michael Bloomberg (R) in last year’s mayoral race, Bloomberg turned down the endorsement -- and the union’s request of adding 25,000 home health workers to the city’s payroll, to a tune of $1 billion annually, which some saw as their attempt for quid pro quo. The union backed former Bronx Borough President Fernando Ferrer (D) instead, as it had in 2001.

Not only does the union dole out money and endorsements, but its members take an active role in the political process.

When Ferrer was battling then-Public Advocate Mark Green in the 2001 Democratic primary run-off, the union mobilized 9,000 volunteers to get out the Ferrer vote.

In this year’s race for attorney general, Cunningham has stepped in as an advisor to former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Andrew Cuomo’s (D) campaign. The union backed Cuomo last April and gave $50,100 -- the maximum amount allowed -- to his campaign a month later. Cuomo was the only candidate for attorney general to get enough delegate support at the late May state Democratic convention to automatically qualify for the September primary ballot, receiving 67 percent of that vote.

He leads in most polls but is closely followed by Green, whom 1199 supported in the 2001 mayoral general election against Bloomberg. Critics say the union holds too much sway over the political process.

The Daily News, for example, refused to endorse Viverito in her Democratic party in part because she had worked as a researcher at 1199 and considers herself a labor-party politician. “The union has enough political influence without getting its own Council vote,” the editors wrote.

Viverito, for her part, said, “They can say what they want. I stick to what are the issues that any union would uphold.” “If people want to say I’m too close to the union, then so be it,” she said.

Whether or not a union exerts too much influence over elected officials has less to do with unions, government watchdogs say, than with a political process in which candidates rely on private contributions to fund campaigns.

The union backed former Gifford Miller (D-Manhattan)in his 2001 quest to be speaker, leading to what some complained was a cozy relationship, and backed Christine Quinn (D-Manhattan) as she worked to succeed Miller. Her first official press conference as speaker, held in conjunction with 1199 and publicized with a press release out of the union’s office rather than hers, also raised some local eyebrows.

“They’ve learned how to play the game. They’re working for their members,” said Rachel Leon, executive director of Common Cause. “What we’d like to see is change the game so that money and lobbying were less important, so that regular people’s voices get heard, as well.”

Photos by Andrew Schwartz