Listen: The National Fight for Medicare! Gaza Ceasefire Demands Grow! Threatened At Work! And More!
A job well done: This contingent of NYC municipal retirees was part of a larger group that went to Albany this week to lobby for the Health Equity for Retirees Act. Photo/Joe Maniscalco
By Bob Hennelly
On this episode of the Stuck Nation Labor Radio Hour, we’re discussing ongoing calls for Gaza ceasefire; the New York City municipal retirees’ battle to save Medicare going national; RWDSU pressing stores to protect retail workers and customers from violence; and Rutgers Unions fighting layoffs and program Cuts.
Back in February, unions representing nine million workers in the United States called for an immediate and permanent ceasefire in Gaza. This coalition includes the American Postal Workers, the Association of Flight Attendants, National Nurses United, the United Auto Workers, the United Electrical Workers and many others.
Last month, Samantha Power, head of USAID, was the first Biden official to confirm that famine was starting to take hold in the Gaza population, half of which is under the age of 18. At the same time, Gaza’s healthcare system has been obliterated.
This week, the Iroquois Confederacy called upon President Biden to immediately stop the war in Gaza. In their press release issued with the letter to the President they wrote, “The Iroquois Confederacy has a long history of standing up for peace against unjust wars. Gaza is already a bloodbath, but it now threatens to engulf the whole region. It also distracts the world from the climate emergency that is threatening Mother Earth.
“We will continue to cover efforts throughout our region to have our local and county governments join this vital call for an immediate cease fire, unfettered humanitarian aid to Gaza, as well as a release of all of the Israeli hostages taken on Oct. 7th.”
On the labor front, we get an Albany update from Mariann Pizzitola, retired FDNY EMT, and president of New York City Organization of Public Service Retirees, which has been fighting the City of New York’s efforts to force 250,000 retired civil servants off of traditional Medicare and onto a predatory for-profit Aetna Medicare Advantage Plan — which is neither Medicare, nor an advantage. She is joined by Kay Tillow, a Kentucky-based longtime union organizer and single payer campaigner.
In the second half of this week’s show, we hear from Josh Kellerman, Policy Director with the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union about the New York State Retail Worker Safety Act, which would require retailers to be proactive and develop plans that put workers’ and customers’ physical safety as a top priority in their loss prevention strategies.
We finish up this episode with an update from the leaders of the Rutgers University Unions. A year ago, they started a landmark strike. Now, they are sounding the alarm about the University’s plans to increase class size, while at the same time laying off faculty. Dr. Catherine Monteleone, president, AAUP BHSNJ, and Bryan Sacks, president of the Adjunct Faculty Union, describe what's at stake.
Listen to the entire show below: