By Joe Maniscalco

The New York City council member championing a bill to protect the Traditional Medicare benefits of retirees from privatization this week rejected the idea that it’s okay for his colleagues to continue sitting around and letting the courts decide what happens next.

By Bob Hennelly

On this episode of the Stuck Nation Labor Radio Hour, we hear how through months of collective action ten thousand members of 32 BJ SEIU working at the region’s airports run by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey will see a significant pay boost of $2.25  over the next 13 months—and $25 by 2032.

By Steve Wishnia

New York City Councilmember Christopher Marte (D-Manhattan) is lead sponsor of the bill that would require NYC to continue offering retired municipal workers traditional Medicare plans, instead of switching them to for-profit Medicare Advantage plans—but none of his 17 colleagues in the Council’s Progressive Caucus have signed on as cosponsors.

By Joe Maniscalco

New York City Municipal retirees fighting back against the campaign to strip them of their Traditional Medicare coverage and into a profit-driven Medicare Advantage plan were once again denied a seat at the table this week, so just like the late Shirley Chisholm urged—they brought folding chairs.

By Bob Hennelly

On this episode of “We Decide: America at the Crossroads 2024  from WBAI and the Pacifica Radio Network hosted by Jenna Flanagan—we’re going down to North Carolina to see just what activists working with the Rev. Dr. William Barber and the Moral Monday movement are doing to bring more transparency to what they contend is an ongoing anti-democratic power grab by the state GOP.

By Joe Maniscalco

“This is why.”

Advocates for home care workers in New York are holding up the ongoing failure to end slavish 24-hour shifts, coupled with the state Department of Labor’s sudden decision to scrap a widespread probe into wage theft as prime examples of why Democrats and progressives are losing ground to Republicans and the right wing.

WAR STORIES By Phil Cohen

Editor’s Note: This is the final installment of Phil’s three-part saga chronicling his harrowing days trying to survive on the streets of Tehran and Kabul just prior to the Iranian Revolution and Russia's invasion of Afghanistan. 

We finally arrived at Kabul’s bus station at 10 p.m., where several taxis waited outside.  I glanced at my notes for the recommended hotel and appropriate cab fare, entered the rear door of the first car in line, stated my destination, requested the price upfront, and was told an amount consistent with my information.

WAR STORIES By Phil Cohen

Editor’s Note: This is Part II of Phil’s three-part saga chronicling his harrowing days trying to eke out a living on the streets of Tehran and Kabul just prior to the Iranian Revolution and Russia's invasion of Afghanistan. 

The guards aroused travelers at dawn and pointed us toward several white vans lined up near the crossing. I was instructed to board one of them, surrendered my bedroll to be tied on the roof but forcibly knocked the driver’s hand away as he reached for the guitar. When the rear door finally closed, I found myself in the most crowded environment I’d ever experienced. It made the New York subway during rush hour seem spacious by comparison.

By Joe Maniscalco

They work on the same subway tracks and roads. They help move the same people throughout New York City. But Metropolitan Transit Authority employees represented by TWU Local 100 and the Subway-Surface Supervisors Association do not experience retirement the same.

By Bob Hennelly

While union density in the U.S. continues to be about half of what it was in the 1980s there are significant signs of a major rebound.

WAR STORIES By Phil Cohen

Editor’s Note: This is Part I of Phil’s three-part saga chronicling his harrowing days trying to eke out a living on the streets of Tehran and Kabul just prior to the Iranian Revolution and Russia's invasion of Afghanistan. 

The road goes on forever and the party never ends – Robert Earl Keen

In 1976, I’d been driving medallion taxis in New York City for two years, working several long night shifts per week, sufficient to pay the rent on my small apartment. I found myself living a lifestyle similar to the Robert De Niro character in Taxi Driver, the ultimate cinematic portrayal of a lonely job in the heart of urban ugliness, violence and alienation.

By Bob Hennelly

In this edition of WBAI’s What's Going On, co-host retired FDNY EMT Marianne Pizzitola, president of the New York City Organization of Public Service Retirees and WBAI’s interim program director Keziah Glow speak with Dr. Steve Auerbach, a retired captain in the U.S. Public Health Service.

By Joe Maniscalco

They work on the same New York City subway tracks and roads. They help move the same people. But Metropolitan Transit Authority employees represented by TWU Local 100 and the Subway-Surface Supervisors Association do not retire the same.

By Bob Hennelly

It’s 48 days until former President Trump drops the former and just becomes President Trump again on Inauguration Day, which next year, ironically coincides with the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King holiday.

By Bob Hennelly

President-Elect Trump’s Secretary of Labor selection of Rep. Lori Chavez-De Remer, one of only three Republicans to support the PRO-Act, which would greatly strengthen the hand of new unions’ bargaining their first contract, was called “significant” by United Federation of Teachers Randi Weingarten. 

By Steve Wishnia

Amazon delivery drivers in Queens are demanding the company oust a union-busting firm after one of its “persuaders” repeatedly called a pro-union driver a “faggot” on Nov. 27.

By Bob Hennelly

This episode of the Stuck Nation Labor Radio Hour with Keziah Glow is dedicated to 32 BJ SEIU’s campaign to organize building service workers here in New York, New Jersey, and in ten other states—including the anti-union, right to work south. Collective action is now more vital than ever.

By Steve Wishnia

Editor’s Note: This is part two of a special two-part Work-Bites Report. Click here for part one.

The city public hospitals’ system of hiring doctors through private affiliates is devastating morale and endangering patient care, several doctors tell Work-Bites.

By Ryn Gargulinski

You can find bad bosses as easily as you can find mushy cucumbers in Florida or rats in New York City. But let’s not forget there are a ton of good bosses out there as well. OK, maybe not a ton. But enough to bring joy to our hearts, meaning to our work and a smile to our face every time we set out to work on a project for them.

By Steve Wishnia

Editor’s Note: This is part one of a special two-part Work-Bites report.

The prolonged contract dispute between doctors at the city’s public hospitals and the three private affiliates that New York City Health + Hospitals has outsourced their employment to is coming to a boil.