Solidarity Rocks: New Dropkick Murphys Music Video Supports Union Drive at Boston Teaching Hospitals

10,000 free DVDs will be given away in Fenway, Kenmore, Longwood Medical Area as Boston rock icons team up with 1199SEIU

BOSTON, Sept. 20 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The new music video from Boston rock icons Dropkick Murphys features more than just footage from the bands rollicking sold-out arena shows.  It also delivers a timely social justice message supporting blue collar and frontline workers in Boston's largest industry – healthcare.  The new "Tomorrow's Industry" video was created through a unique collaboration with Boston hospital workers as part of their campaign to join Local 1199 of the Service Employees International Union for a voice at work.

When the video and DVD launch publicly on Tuesday, September 21st, the Dropkick Murphys will make history as the first national recording artists in the United States to ever adopt a labor organizing cause as the main theme of a rock music video.

Before the baseball game on September 21st, 10,000 free DVD copies of the video will be given away in the Fenway, Kenmore, and Longwood Medical Area neighborhoods of Boston from 6:00 PM – 7:30 PM.  Following the massive DVD giveaway, there will be a release party at McGreevey's Irish Pub and Sports Bar, 911 Boylston Street, Boston, MA from 8:00 PM – 10:00 PM.  The first 200 people at the release party will receive not just a DVD, but also a limited edition t-shirt to commemorate the event.  The video will also be posted online that evening to www.DropkickMurphys.com and www.Join1199SEIU.org.

"Thousands of healthcare workers who care for us when we need it most cannot afford healthcare themselves," reads the text appearing on screen before the video opens to Dropkick Murphys bagpiper Scruffy Wallace being transported by ambulance and sporting a ghastly looking head wound.  Wallace is accompanied in the speeding ambulance by band mate and Dropkick Murphys bassist Ken Casey.

When Wallace arrives in the emergency room, it's not actors delivering his care.  It is real hospital workers.  Off camera, they are some of the same caregivers who have been campaigning for all Boston hospital jobs to pay a living wage and for fair union elections.  Another key goal of the workers' union drive is to win more respect for the often under-appreciated service jobs that help keep their hospitals running and patients safe.

"This was a fun way to get the message out about a serious issue," said Bill Timmons, an area hospital worker featured in the video, "It shows Dropkick Murphys are a band that's true to their roots.  It shows they're willing to stand up for the working families of their city.  And many of those families have at least one person doing a job in healthcare where they're underpaid and barely able to scrape by."

In the largest hospital organizing drive Massachusetts has seen in decades, more than 3,500 workers have already joined Local 1199 in the past two years.  But thousands more are still campaigning to tell area hospital CEOs they want a chance to vote for a union without interference or retaliation by hospital executives. 

To RSVP for the video release party, please call 617-284-1143 or email [email protected].

Now in their 14th year, the Dropkick Murphys have risen from their basic Irish-punk roots to become a rocking and rolling, raging, green-clover machine. Dropkick Murphys are now one of the best-known rock bands in the world, thanks in part to their ability to tap into the working-class and sports fan culture that permeates Boston and the New England area but even more so due to their reputation for phenomenal live shows.

Representing more than 35,000 healthcare workers throughout Massachusetts, and 370,000 workers in Massachusetts, New York, Maryland, New Jersey, Florida, and Washington, D.C., 1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East is the largest and fastest-growing healthcare union in America. Our mission is to achieve affordable, high quality healthcare for all.  1199SEIU is part of the 2.1 million member Service Employees International Union.

SOURCE 1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East