Dear union family,
Last week, we lost a legendary labor leader and longtime 1199 officer, Eddie Kay, who died at age eighty nine.
In forty years of leadership from membership in a New York City drugstore to serving as an executive officer, Eddie Kay made a powerful impact on the story of our healthcare workers’ movement. He led workers who successfully organized at New York’s Columbia-Presbyterian hospital, one of the biggest hospitals in the world, and caregivers at over forty nursing homes, including one home where workers had to confront managers reportedly controlled by the Mafia! Eddie mobilized New York 1199ers to get on buses to rally with healthcare workers out of state. He drove to Allentown, Pennsylvania to rally nursing home workers. In 1990, he joined Washington hospital workers on strike – and in 1991, he was arrested for civil disobedience along with Canonsburg hospital members like Kim Patterson fighting for a union contract. Eddie was a trade unionist to his core who believed that the role of the organizer – and therefore of all union leaders – was to lead workers into struggle so that they learn from their experience that their power comes from collective action. Eddie lived that principle every day throughout his long arc of activism and leadership in 1199 and activism supporting other unions. Eddie was one of those union people who everywhere he went, organizing campaigns, strikes, marches on the boss, informational pickets, and rallies followed. While most of the struggles Eddie helped to lead were against arrogant bosses, he also knew that sometimes the fights for militant and progressive unionism had to be waged inside the union, where debates and contests over the direction of the labor movement matter not just to current members but also to the millions of not yet union workers who desperately need our support to organize.
Rest in power, Eddie, and thank you for your work to build our union.
In Solidarity,
Matthew W. Yarnell
President, SEIU Healthcare Pennsylvania
Edward Lee “Eddie” Kay (March 8, 1932 – February 15, 2022)
Born in Brooklyn, son of Irving Kay, an immigrant and pharmacist, and Helen Kay, a writer, artist, and cosmetologist; attended Temple University in Philadelphia; in 1960, joined Local 1199 as a drug store employee; in 1964, elected as 1199 delegate; in 1968, hired by 1199 Organizing Director Elliott Godoff as an organizer, reportedly weeping with joy to receive the appointment; credited with organizing workers to form a union at a Long Island nursing home controlled by the Mafia; in 1970, promoted to 1199 Queens and Long Island Area Director; led organizing at more than forty nursing homes on Long Island; recognized by 1199 leaders for building strong relationships with culturally conservative white and Jewish members on Long Island, despite his left wing politics; in 1972, elected as 1199 Vice President; led the team building the huge worker organizing committee at “the castle on the hill”, Columbia-Presbyterian hospital, resulting in the 1973 breakthrough union recognition election victory; organized members to travel and rally in support of healthcare worker organizing outside New York, in one instance turning out the evening shift of one hospital to come in two hours early and work those hours for free in order to allow the day shift to be released two hours early so union members could go up to a rally in Connecticut; partisan of the progressive camp of multicultural, organizing leadership in 1199, opposed to undemocratic, corrupt, and incompetent leadership after the retirement of 1199 founder Leon Davis; key organizer of the minority New York delegate group supporting District 1199C President Henry Nicholas for President of the National Union of Hospital and Healthcare Employees, denying the incumbent leadership control of the union outside New York; suffered physical beating and the slashing of his car tires by supporters of union leadership; purged from union office, returned to work as an employee at Albert Einstein hospital, retaining 1199 membership; core member of the Save Our Union campaign organizing resistance among 1199 members; helped expose election fraud in 1199; in 1986, elected as 1199 Secretary Treasurer on the Save Our Union slate, overcoming the incumbent leadership who set the voting locations and deployed sympathetic staff to mobilize their supporters; led efforts to rebuild the union despite intense continuing internal conflict; served as 1199 Executive Vice President from 1989 to 1999; traveled widely to support organizing and union contract campaigns, including to support nursing home workers in Allentown, Pennsylvania, and to western Pennsylvania to join Washington Hospital strikers in 1990 and to commit civil disobedience with Canonsburg hospital strikers in 1991; after retiring from 1199, continued organizing as an advisor to Transport Workers Union Local 100, Laborers Local 78, various locals of the Amalgamated Transit Union, and members organizing for change in the Newspaper Guild, the American Postal Workers Union, and other unions; trained hundreds of local union officers and shop stewards; campaigned for progressive political candidates; celebrated by generations of organizers and worker leaders as a mentor, educator, comedian, coach, goad, friend, and embodiment of progressive and democratic trade unionism.
“The first question out of his mouth was, ‘Who’d you talk to? Who’d they talk to? What are they doing? They’ll do it – you’ve got to ask them.’ Eddie was always clear on two things: did we talk to the delegates who were the leaders? Did we involve other people? Then we figured out how to solve the problem.” – Stan Israel, 1199 Queens & Long Island Area Organizer, subsequently Executive Vice President & Rhode Island Area Director, District 1199, New England Healthcare Employees Union, SEIU
“When we have a demonstration or we have a picket line in our local union and we want the members to come out and we want the members to participate, why is it that Eddie’s area in our union has the most participation, even though the buses from his area of the union have to come the farthest?… So why does Eddie’s area always have the most participation by the members? Why is it, in effect, always stronger?… Why does Eddie’s area have more people come from a farther distance on a regular basis, year after year, to participate in demonstrations and picket lines? And the answer is that internal organizing in Eddie’s area continues after the first contract – the same organizing drive that we needed to start the union.” – Robert Muehlenkamp, Executive Vice President, 1199 National Union of Hospital and Healthcare Employees
“We got mobs of people. Because we got the other workers… to give up two free hours, one free hour… That is such a joy, that workers would give up two hours… They have to really want to do it. That’s why we had thousands of people there… It was less important of why they knew they were going – even though that’s important – and more important that they felt that they owned the union… that they were treated with respect by the boss. That’s the key.” – Jerry Brown, President, District 1199, New England Healthcare Employees Union, SEIU
“He would make you feel like you want to move the mountains.” – Vladimir Fortunny, Vice President, 1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East
“Eddie drove from Brooklyn to Allentown to give a talk to nursing home workers. I was nervous and went out and bought food for him as a welcome. When he arrived I asked if he was hungry. I had cold cuts, rye bread pickles, coleslaw, and Tab. He said he wasn’t hungry, that he had snacked on the drive on two salamis, a pound of cashews, and a couple of sandwiches. Then he ate everything I had. He loved to eat and laugh and tell stories, but more than anything he outworked everyone else and found defeat not only unacceptable but not possible. His courage during the fight for 1199 is hard to really appreciate. He was attacked by people who had no boundaries. Eddie knew how to organize: listening, charting, house calls, being able to count, and avoiding polarization. These are all hallmarks of success, the technical requirements derived from being an organization of the workers. This expertise came from a love for all workers, by definition, regardless of who they were, where they worked, or what they looked like. Most importantly, Eddie believed that workers should lead the union to change their own lives, to secure a better future. That is the most important part of his legacy. While the fundamentals of organizing that Eddie lived by remain true, in keeping with his belief that workers should lead the union to better their lives, it is in my view time to transform organizing’s ultimate purpose, which must be to transform the work and the workplace through a demand for worker decision-making in quality and safety, patient experience, improved efficiency and waste elimination, while building a new workforce of the future based on teams, quality, and continuous improvement. This is the only path to secure increased wages and benefits, union growth, and worker voice in the most dominant portion of workers’ lives: the work itself.” – John August, President, District 1199P SEIU
“As a young 1199 organizer in New York in the early 1990s, I had the great fortune to work with Eddie on organizing drives, contract campaigns, and strikes from Brooklyn and Queens to Port Jervis. I was a sponge, aware every day that I was learning at the knee of an extraordinary and principled leader without peer in the labor movement. I learned the basics of union organizing: to listen, to tell the truth, to identify leaders, to count, to challenge workers to believe in themselves and take risks, to help workers find a settlement and own their victory so they can keep building for the next fight. Eddie loved to train young organizers. One concept he challenged union staff on was the meaning of ‘union corruption.’ Sure, he taught, it means stealing money from the workers. But there are other, equally unacceptable forms of corruption among union leaders: getting comfortable in our jobs, taking short cuts, failing to help workers organize to stand up to the boss. Those forms of corruption may not be unlawful nor make the headlines, but we must resist them just as doggedly. Eddie was extraordinarily kind, warm, and funny. He could be gruff, but never mean. He had an infectious smile. He hosted annual Super Bowl parties at his home in the Sheepshead Bay section of Brooklyn for staff and members (featuring generous plates of cold cuts). Eddie worked very hard and expected everyone around him to do the same (he was always the first person in the union office and was the initiator of many 7 a.m. conference calls regarding campaign strategy), but he also encouraged us to take care of ourselves. He made a point of carving out time for long walks in his neighborhood on Saturdays, regardless of what was happening in the union. He had a special phone line in his office for his partner, and he interrupted whatever he was doing to answer it when he called. He regularly asked us how we were doing and about our families. Eddie Kay was one of a kind.” – Neal Bisno, Executive Vice President, SEIU
