Service and Health Care Unions

Service and health care unions represent much of Philadelphia's private-sector workforce outside construction and manufacturing: hospital and nursing home staff, janitors and security officers, hotel and restaurant employees, retail workers and telecommunications workers. They are especially important because "eds and meds" institutions are the city's largest employers; see Eds and Meds Anchor Institutions.^[1]

1 Health care unions

District 1199C of the National Union of Hospital and Health Care Employees, an AFSCME affiliate, is the long-standing Philadelphia health care workers' union. Chris Woods took over as president in 2019 from longtime president Henry Nicholas, who became president emeritus; according to the Philadelphia Tribune story republished by the Pennsylvania Capital-Star, Nicholas had built the local to more than 11,000 members. In October 2021 the national union removed the local's leadership and appointed a trustee and a deputy trustee to run it; Woods said the national union cited unpaid per-capita dues and called the move political, while the national union could not be reached for comment in that report.^[3] The Philadelphia Council AFL-CIO's executive board lists Dionne Gary as District 1199C's representative (October 2026). SEIU Healthcare Pennsylvania also represents health care and long-term care workers across the region. Both unions press for staffing standards and wages at hospitals and nursing homes, and for state Medicaid funding; see Department of Public Health.

2 Building service and hospitality

32BJ SEIU represents janitors, security officers and other building service workers; its national site says it also includes airport workers, window cleaners, building engineers and school and food-service workers across the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic. The Philadelphia Council AFL-CIO lists Daisy Cruz as the representative of SEIU 32BJ's Mid-Atlantic Region on its executive board.

UNITE HERE's Philadelphia website says the union represents about 7,000 hotel, gaming and food-service workers, including Local 274 (about 4,000 private-sector hotel and food-service workers at stadiums, universities, cafeterias and hotels), Local 634 (about 2,200 public-sector school cafeteria employees and noontime aides in the School District) and Local 54 (about 800 workers at a Chester casino plus Atlantic City gaming workers). Rosslyn Wuchinich is listed as Local 274's representative on the AFL-CIO council's board. In May 2026 the Inquirer reported that Local 274 had set a June 12 strike deadline at five downtown hotels, with the FIFA World Cup and July 4 celebrations approaching. As of October 2026, the union's own "Philly travel alert" page says that union hotel contracts in Center City have expired, that picket lines have gone up at some hotels, and it lists the Hilton Garden Inn Center City and the Four Points by Sheraton Philadelphia Northeast as "at risk" of labor disputes; the page does not describe how the June 12 deadline was resolved at each hotel.^[2]

3 Retail, communications and higher education

UFCW Local 1776 represents grocery and retail workers; Wendell Young IV is listed as one of its representatives on the Philadelphia Council AFL-CIO board, and the council's president, Daniel Bauder, is listed as affiliated with UFCW Local 1776. The Communications Workers of America Local 13000 represents communications and public-sector workers; Jim Gardler of CWA Local 13000 is the Council AFL-CIO's secretary-treasurer. Organizing at the University of Pennsylvania has also grown; the Council AFL-CIO says it founded the Coalition of Workers at Penn in 2023 for unionized and not-yet-unionized Penn workers. See Worker Centers and Labor Advocacy for non-union organizing.

4 Role in politics and policy

The Philadelphia Council AFL-CIO, to which many of these unions are affiliated, says it supports city worker-protection legislation, including the National Domestic Workers POWER Act, and the Office of Worker Protections. These unions engage in elections through the AFL-CIO council and through their own committees; see Labor and Politics in Philadelphia.

See also: Organized Labor in Philadelphia, Teamsters in Philadelphia.

References

1. 32BJ SEIU, "About Us," seiu32bj.org; UNITE HERE Philadelphia, uniteherephilly.org; Philadelphia Council AFL-CIO, Executive Board, phillyaflcio.org (viewed October 2026).
2. Philadelphia Inquirer, "Hotel strike Philadelphia union Unite Here FIFA" (May 21, 2026); UNITE HERE Philly, "Philly travel alert," uniteherephilly.org (viewed October 2026).
3. Pennsylvania Capital-Star, "National union removes leadership of local District 1199C from office" (October 18, 2021; first published by the Philadelphia Tribune).