The roots of the National Union of Hospital and Health Care Employees, AFSCME, AFL-CIO go back to June 7, 1932, when a group of pharmacists founded the Pharmacists Union of Greater New York, which later acquired the name 1199. It was in 1958, when Leon Davis, then President of Local 1199 and Elliot Godoff, a pioneer hospital organizer, gave a proposal to organize hospital workers to the Drug Store Union.