Fact Sheet on Dennis Rivera
1199SEIU President Dennis Rivera was born in Aibonito, Puerto Rico, in 1950. After attending the Colegio Universitario de Cayey, he left school to become a fulltime Union organizer of Puerto Rican hospital workers.
When he moved to New York in 1977, he was hired as an organizer by what was then Local 1199, working in several of the city's healthcare facilities, including Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx.
In 1984, he left the Union staff to go back to work as a hospital worker and to become an organizer for Save Our Union, the rank-and-file formation that was elected to replace the former leadership in 1986.
He was elected President of 1199 in 1989, and has been re-elected five times.
Since 1989, he and his team have built 1199SEIU into the biggest Union Local in the world and perhaps the most powerful Union in all of New York. In 1998, the Union merged with the Service Employees International Union (SEIU).
When he was elected 1199 President in 1989, the Union had 75,000 members. When he assumedthe presidency, the Union was divided internally. Today, 12 other local unions have joined together in 1199SEIU, spawning a dramatic new unity of health care workers into one union that is working to improve healthcare.
1199SEIU now has 300,000 members working in hospitals, nursing homes, homecare agencies, clinics and pharmacies throughout New York State, Maryland, DC and Massachusetts. In addition to strengthening the Union-and in part the result of it-he has led the union from a time of controversy and conflict with the hospital industry into a period of partnership with many of New York's healthcare institutions. This has helped improve the stability of healthcare institutions in New York, resulting in tremendous benefits to patients and healthcare workers, both in ensuring adequate resources to maintain quality health care, and in creating a worker-friendly environment for improved patient care.
He is Co-Chair of the 1199SEIU National Benefit Fund, which provides health care to 450,000 working people in New York and also Co-Chair of the 1199SEIU Pension Fund, which provides financial security and dignity to retired healthcare workers in New York. He also is Co-Chair of the 1199SEIU Training and Upgrading Fund, and the 1199SEIU Child Care Fund, which strengthen communities by allowing working parents to go to work or attend training to better themselves, knowing their children are safely cared for.
During his tenure in office, the Union has created programs that give job security guarantees to most of the members, a home mortgage program for members, a Child Care Fund with after school, daycare, summer camp, scholarships and other programs for members' children, and a Citizenship Program to help the union's many immigrant workers to become U.S. citizens.
He has dramatically increased the political profile of the union, which plays a key role in representing the interests of working people in state and national politics. Over half of the union's members gain a strong voice in the political process by voluntarily contributing $5-10 a month to the union's Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Political Action Fund.
He oversaw the creation of the Healthcare Education Project, in partnership with the Greater New York Hospital Association, which has saved nearly $20 billion for New York's healthcare system over the last dozen years.
As 1199SEIU President, he helped to pioneer the Child Health Plus and Family Health Plus programs for healthcare coverage for New York's children and working poor.
Since 1998, he has also headed up the SEIU Healthcare Division, which, with nearly one million members, is the largest healthcare Union in the country. He has held many other important posts in the national and New York labor movements, and has served on the executive boards of the Children's Defense Fund and Riverkeeper, the environmental organization, and the Hispanic Education and Legal Fund.
Under his leadership, 1199SEIU has been a leading voice for working families and poor people on a host of social issues-tenants' rights, police abuse, immigrant rights, voting rights, and economic justice. It was the first U.S. labor union to oppose the war in Iraq.
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