By Bob Hennelly

On this episode of the Moral Monday Labor Radio Hour, Rev. Dr. William Barber frames the 2024 moral imperative; North America’s farm workers speak out; and the News Guild fights to save local news in Rochester.

Dear Scott:

Earlier this year, you filed papers with the New York City Campaign Finance Board to form an exploratory committee as you consider another mayoral run (I received an email from “Team Stringer” asking for a donation).

War Stories By Phil Cohen

During the spring of 1995, I was assigned to negotiate a first contract at the BTR Sealing Systems factory in Reidsville, North Carolina; recently organized by ACTWU (now Workers United.) The 450 hourly workers were engaged in the production of wiper blades for major automobile companies.

By Joe Maniscalco

In the span of two days, New York City retirees battling to save Medicare from extinction have called out corrupt union misleaders willing to sell out the entire labor movement for Medicare Advantage; challenged President Joe Biden to finally get real about what needs to be done to rescue Medicare; and provided a game plan on how to win back rank and file control from the misleadership class.

By Bob Hennelly

Unions representing the mostly women and people of color who comprise the majority of FDNY EMS first responders in New York City tell Work-Bites efforts by the City Council to better protect the workforce from deadly attacks on the job only underscores the pay and benefit disparity between them — and the mostly white males who constitute the bulk of FDNY firefighters.

By Joe Maniscalco

Problematic policing in the subways and a chronic inability to care for emotionally disturbed New Yorkers in need of help are the major reasons why MTA employees are going to work fearing attack, according to those Work-Bites spoke to recently.

By Bob Hennelly

On this week’s episode of the Moral Monday Radio Labor Hour, we join Rev. Dr. William Barber in New Haven, Connecticut for his Center for Public Theology and Public Policy Conference where attendees are asking, “What are the moral and spiritual issues of the 2024 Presidential Election?”

By Bob Hennelly 

For years, with a surreal break during the COVID, Atlantic City’s casino workers have been forced to endure life-threatening secondhand smoke because New Jersey’s Democratic machine, the casino operators, and the largest union representing casino workers were all worried enforcing the state’s 2006 Smoke-Free Air Act would hurt business.

By Steve Wishnia

A Bronx landlord trade group has decided that it will not reopen its contract with 32BJ SEIU and seek concessions from the building-service workers union.

By Bob Hennelly

The Association of Legislative Employees (ALE) representing nearly 400 City Council staffers has reached a tentative labor agreement with the legislative body, the union and City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams announced Tuesday.

By Bob Hennelly

On this episode of the Stuck Nation Labor Radio Hour, we’re talking about two disasters — one that’s already happened in Baltimore, and another that’s about to happen in New York. 

By Steve Wishnia

Florida’s legislature has passed a broad pre-emption bill that will prohibit local governments from enacting heat-safety regulations or requiring their contractors to pay more than the state’s $12-an-hour minimum wage.

By Bob Hennelly

On March 26, the day after the commemoration of the 113th anniversary of the Triangle factory fire that killed 146 mostly female immigrant garment workers in lower Manhattan — a crew of a half-dozen immigrant men in a non-union paving crew fell 185 feet to their deaths from Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key bridge after it was rammed by the Dali, a rudderless massive cargo ship that was trying to leave the port without a tug escort.

By Joe Maniscalco

New York City home health aides fighting to pass legislation ending mandatory 24-hour workdays “paused” their five-day hunger strike outside the gates of City Hall on Monday, promising to keep coming back before finally returning with enough outraged workers to encircle the local seat of government on May Day. 

By Joe Maniscalco

In this Work-Bites video, Marian Jones, political educator coordinator with the NYC-DSA Socialist Feminist Working Group, calls out NYC Council Speaker Adrienne Adams' for blocking "No More 24" legislation, saying it's time to support caregivers and stop hiding behind the idea that the state alone should address mandatory 24-hour workdays.

By Joe Maniscalco

In this Work-Bites video, Ain’t I a Woman organizer Jihye Song talks about the ugly legacy NYC Council Speaker Adrienne Adams is creating for herself by ignoring calls to put the "No More 24" bill on the floor for a vote.

By Bob Hennelly

On this week’s episode of the Stuck Nation Labor Radio Hour, we’re talking about the Triangle Factory Fire and its legacy, UAW Non-Profit Legal Service lawyers on strike, and honoring our monumental women.

March 25,  2024, is the  113th anniversary of the Triangle Shirtwaist fire in Greenwich Village that killed 146 mostly young immigrant female garment workers and launched the worker safety and labor movements. 

By Kevin Van Meter

A slim volume by London-based organizers Lydia Hughes and Jamie Woodcock, Troublemaking: Why You Should Organize Your Workplace, released in 2023 from Verso Books, draws upon workers movements in Britain, India, Argentina, South Africa, Brazil, across Europe, and the United States. “Being a troublemaker,” the authors argue, “is about trying to build power at work. Building power is always a process. It requires bringing workers together, developing confidence and discerning ways to win.”

By Ryn Gargulinski

Get a secure job. Work yourself to the bone. Be loyal, trustworthy and responsible to your employer – and you’ll be rewarded in the end.

And if you believe all that, I got a bridge to sell you in Brooklyn.

By Joe Maniscalco

As recently as last week, New York City Council Speaker [D-28th District] Adrienne Adams was repeating her longstanding claim that she supports home health aides fighting to “improve their working conditions” — but that actually ending the 24-hour workdays they’re forced to endure is a state issue, and, therefore, out of her hands.