[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 124 (Wednesday, September 22, 1999)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1919]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                 TRIBUTE TO LABOR LEADER HENRY NICHOLAS

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. ROBERT A. BRADY

                            of pennsylvania

                    in the house of representatives

                     Wednesday, September 22, 1999

  Mr. BRADY of Pennsylvania. Mr. Speaker, I rise to honor labor leader 
Henry Nicholas. Henry Nicholas has emerged as a national spokesman in 
the struggle to preserve quality patient care and is regarded as one of 
the most influential African-American leaders in Pennsylvania.
  Born in rural Fayette, MS, in 1936, Henry Nicholas is a man 
representative of vision, advocacy, and triumph. After leaving the Deep 
South while still a young man, Nicholas moved to New York City where he 
began working as a hospital orderly in 1957. Two years later Nicholas 
was organizing his coworkers into what was then Local 1199 of the Drug 
and Hospitals Employees Union. That same year, he played a key role in 
the strike of hospital union workers that resulted in union contracts 
for thousands of New York City hospital employees.
  While he started as a union volunteer, in 1961 Nicholas was named a 
union organizer and quickly moved up the union ranks. Assistant 
director of the 1199 National Organizing Committee, Nicholas led 
successful hospital workers, organizing campaigns in Pittsburgh, Ohio, 
and Detroit. He also directed a 113-day hospital strike in Charleston, 
SC, which was regarded as a national landmark in the struggle for civil 
rights for African-Americans. As a direct result of that success, the 
National Union of Hospital and Health Care Employees was established 
and Nicholas was elected its first secretary-treasurer.
  Two years after he arrived in Philadelphia with the task of 
organizing health care workers, he won contracts for over 5,000 
employees working in the city's major health care institutions. In 
1974, due to the success of the Nicholas' organizing efforts, District 
1199C, the Philadelphia local of the national union, was officially 
chartered and Nicholas was elected president. Today 1199C represents 
more than 15,000 hospital and health care workers in 110 health care 
institutions in the greater Philadelphia area, and five counties in 
southern New Jersey. As a result of the phenomenal growth of District 
1199C, the union created a training and upgrading program for health 
care employees that has become a national model.

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