NYSUT Federation of Nurses and Health Professionals Files

New York State United Teachers (NYSUT) was created in 1972 by the merger of the New York State Teachers Association (NYSTA) and the United Teachers of New York (UTNY). NYSTA had been affiliated with the National Education Association (NEA), and UTNY with the American Federation of Teachers (AFT). UTNY was the statewide organization whose United Federation of Teachers (UFT), led by Albert Shanker, was the predominant teachers' union in New York City. In joining with United Teachers and affiliating with the AFT, NYSUT also became a member union of the AFL-CIO.

In 1976, NYSUT voted to disaffiliate with the NEA. Some locals left NYSUT and created the NYEA (New York Educators Association), which became the state affiliate for the NEA. In the early 1980s, NYEA changed its name to NEA-NY.

NYEA/NEA- NY viewed association with the AFL-CIO's industrial unions as undermining the professional image and independence of teachers. The two organizations also differed strongly on aspects of the governance structure, particularly with respect to ethnic minority representation, with NYSUT opposed to mandatory minimums. The rivalry between NYSUT and NYEA/NEA-NY in organizing new locals expended a great deal of resources for both labor organizations.

While competition with NYEA/NEA-NY was a constant focus of NYSUT's organizing efforts for teachers, NYSUT was also organizing college faculty members, nurses, and other non-teaching personnel. Once members were organized, NYSUT continued to advocate for teachers' and other workers' rights through contract support and legal services at the local level and political involvement at the state and federal levels, supporting candidates and legislation that protected funding, due process, and working conditions.

NEA-N Y merged with NYSUT in 2006, by which time NYSUT had grown to more than half a million members, becoming the largest union in New York State.

The Federation of Nurses and Health Professionals began in 1978 with an organizing drive at Lutheran Medical Center in Brooklyn, where nurses voted overwhelmingly to join the United Federation of Teachers, the NYC affiliate of New York State United Teachers (NYSUT); both teacher unions were affiliated with the American Federation of Teachers. The Federation of Nurses and Health Professionals was created as the AFT's umbrella organization for health care workers; within city limits, it was known as the Federation of Nurses/UFT. Operationally, the union shared the same organizing personnel and field infrastructure as NYSUT and UFT. The collection documents the major organizing drives (and sometimes strikes) at Lutheran Medical and other voluntary (private) hospitals, the Albany Visiting Nurses Association and other independent staffing agencies, Bellevue Hospital, and the municipal network of the NYC Health and Hospitals Corporation. Major areas of contention remained consistent regardless of the size or status of the facility: staffing levels, long hours, and their impact on patient care. Throughout a decade of profound challenges and changes to the health care system, from institutional mergers and reorganizations, to new professional requirements, to the sudden appearance and explosive growth of a strange new disease that came to be called AIDS, nurses and other health professionals had the backup of the organizing and research capabilities of NYSUT to help them find their way.