BY RILEY JAMES

When my daughter was in second grade, she appeared in a school play as a member of the White House Press Corps. She could have tried out for the role of president, or vice president, or Secret Service agent, but she knew the role she wanted, because she wanted to be a journalist just like me, and she got it.

By Timothy Sheard

Editor’s Note: Tim Sheard is the founder of Work-Bites’ publishing partner Hard Ball and Little Heroes Press. We’re happy to share this little vignette of old-time New York City with you. Have a great work week!

My dad was a New York City newspaper reporter in the 1940's and 50's. On most mornings, he and his fellow reporters would clock in at work, and then go to the pub to start drinking.

By Steve Wishnia

Along with multiple vows to investigate the “weaponization” of federal agencies against the peaceful tourists who visited the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, another ritual of the Republicans taking control of the House this month was once again changing the name of the Committee on Education and Labor to the Committee on Education and the Workforce.

By Joe Maniscalco

Last week’s New York City Council hearing on changing Administrative Code 12-126 made two already obvious things a helluva lot clearer. They are as follows:

By Bob Hennelly

Several New York City Council members at the Jan. 9 Civil Service and Labor Committee hearing on the future of healthcare for the city’s active and retired civil servants appeared to stump the expert panel sent by the Adams administration who repeatedly had to commit to following up later with their answers.  

By Bob Hennelly

The tentative agreements reached between the New York State Nurses Association, Mt. Sinai and Montefiore Hospitals include a 19.2 percent pay raise over three years as well as groundbreaking and enforceable patient nursing staffing ratio requirements. The 7,000 union nurses, on strike since Monday, headed back to work today as details on the deals, that still need to be ratified, continued to emerge.

By Steve Wishnia

The Supreme Court heard a three-headed argument Jan. 10 in a case on whether employers have the right to sue unions in state court for property lost or damaged during a strike.

By Joe Maniscalco

FDNY retiree Ken Dolan’s wife suffers from Parkinson’s and the 80-year-old knew he really should be at home looking after her, but here he was standing outside City Hall on Jan. 9 with hundreds of other senior citizens trying to convince members of the New York City Council not to touch their traditional Medicare health insurance plan.

By Bob Hennelly with Joe Maniscalco

There’s an African proverb that goes like this: “Support those who may have lost their teeth…because they supported you when you were teething.”

By Bob Hennelly with Joe Maniscalco

Were you one of those New Yorkers who were banging on pots and pans or hanging out your window applauding overworked nurses and doctors at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic? Well, striking nurses at Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx and Mount Sinai Hospital in Manhattan need you on the picket line today.

By Joe Maniscalco

You know your for-profit, privatized Medicare Advantage health insurance plan really sucks when right-wing Republicans and left-wing Democrats actually unite to defeat its imposition on municipal retirees.

By Steve Wishnia

More than 7,000 nurses went on strike at 6 a.m. Jan. 9 after failing to reach a contract agreement with Mount Sinai Hospital in East Harlem and Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx, two of the largest privately owned hospitals in New York City.

By Steve Wishnia

With less than seven hours to go before the strike deadline of 6 a.m. on Monday, Jan. 9, more than 7,000 nurses at two of New York City’s largest private hospitals are still without a contract deal. But the New York State Nurses Association reached a last-minute tentative agreement Sunday night with two other hospitals, Mount Sinai Morningside and Mount Sinai West in Manhattan, and Gov. Kathy Hochul called for binding arbitration.

By Steve Wishnia

Three New York City private hospitals have reached tentative contract deals with nurses, but more than 10,000 nurses at five others are still scheduled to strike on Jan. 9.

By Joe Maniscalco

After nearly 40 years working for the City of New York retired municipal employee Roberta Gonzalez expected to be traveling the world right about now.

“I always wanted to go to Israel,” the 70-year-old Sheepshead Bay resident told Work-Bites this week.

By Bob Hennelly

No members of the City Council spoke in favor of a controversial bill introduced Jan. 4 that would alter the city’s Administrative Code that covers the provision of health insurance for its employees that’s being advanced by the Adams administration and the Municipal Labor Committee.

By Joe Maniscalco

New York City Retirees opposing ongoing efforts to push them into a disastrous privatized health insurance plan aren’t buying Speaker Adrienne Adams’ sudden rationale for attempting to scrap the law that’s protected municipal healthcare for decades.

By Bob Hennelly 

On the eve of the introduction of controversial legislation to alter the city’s Administrative Code that covers the provision of health insurance for active and retired civil servants, the City Council’s Democratic leadership issued a statement asserting that no matter how they act on the legislation, Mayor Adams and the Municipal Labor Committee will be “moving forward to implement Medicare Advantage.”

BY ROBERT OVETZ

Reprinted by permission

Although my union proudly calls itself a “member led union,” it is extremely undemocratic in several ways.

We do not have “one member, one vote” for the leadership. This means a new caucus needs to win control of at least a majority of the 23 chapters to control the board of directors and the top officer positions.

By Timothy Sheard

Young union leaders bringing the fight to the bosses at Starbucks, Amazon, Chipotle, REI and other bastions of corporate power across the country are inspiring millions and breathing new fire into the labor movement.