Listen: Why Hotel Workers Are on Strike; Law360 Union Presses Their Fight…

Hotel workers unionized with UniteHere march on the picket line in Boston. Photo courtesy of the union

By Bob Hennelly

While labor is our focus on the Stuck Nation Labor Radio Hour, we do have to keep an eye on City Hall in NYC which is in the midst of labor negotiations with both the Doctors Council SEIU and the FDNY EMS unions.

Late on Saturday night, the New York Times reported the abrupt resignation of Lisa Zornberg, Mayor Eric Adams’ chief legal advisor –which the newspaper said was “a major departure” from the administration at a time when the mayor and his inner circle face an onslaught of federal criminal investigations.

Last week, of course, we saw Police Commissioner Edward A. Caban resign  after the FBI seized his phones and those of deputy Mayor Sheena Wright, Schools Chancellor David C. Banks and deputy Mayor for public safety Phil Banks, III. 

None of these individuals has been charged with any crime. 

New York State Senator and chair of the Labor Committee Jessica Ramos also announced her intent to run for Mayor last week. In 2023, Ramos introduced a bill that would amend the state’s Taylor Law which prohibits public employees from striking so that transit workers with the MTA under certain conditions could do so. 

Of course, 2023 also saw a real spike in union activity—including a surge in work place organizing drives and strikes

Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) shows that last year  major work stoppages increased by 280 percent,  returning to levels last seen prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the Economic Policy Institute. Across the nation, we also saw auto workers, Hollywood writers and actors, healthcare workers, and teachers all walk off their jobs for better wages and benefits. 

In this episode we  get a strike updates from the Law360 Union that’s part of the CWA’s Writers Guild representing journalists and editorial workers at Law360, an essential and highly profitable news source for the legal profession.

We will also check in with UniteHere— currently on strike at hotels in New Haven and San Diego with hotels in several other cities also reviewing their options after owners used the pandemic to increase their profits at the expense of their workers and the traveling public.

Listen to the entire show below:

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