Work-Bites Network

On the latest episode of the Iron Bill Hohlfeld Show, we welcome Mike Dunn, President, BA, Apprentice Coordinator, Ironworkers Local 417, to share his views on surviving — and thriving the dramatic changes hitting the construction industry.

By Robert Ovetz

Open bargaining is becoming more widespread as more unions like one of my own adopt it. As it does, we should not take for granted that conservative leadership is willingly going to allow the rank and file to obtain more power at the bargaining table. Open bargaining, which allows the rank-and-file to participate in bargaining sessions,  is a threat to both conservative leadership and the boss.  

By Bob Hennelly

Courtesy of InsiderNJ

A few days into the nurses’ strike at New Brunswick’s Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick and the outpouring of community support expressed for the nurses in the cacophony of car and truck horns echoes for blocks away.

By Bob Hennelly

On the latest episode of the Stuck Nation Labor Radio Hour, Judy Danella, RN, and president of United Steel Workers Nurses Local 4-200, updates us on her union’s strike at the Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick, New Jersey. New York State Nurses Association [NYSNA] President Nancy Hagans is also on hand to discuss her union’s new contract agreement with New York City’s Health + Hospitals Corporation, which promises a $32,000 a year pay boost over the next five-and-a-half years.

By Joe Maniscalco

Brooklyn comic book creator Dean Haspiel is sort of like a construction worker — both really enjoy the inherent tangibility of the work — whether it’s pointing to a building on the corner they helped put up, or grabbing a graphic novel off the shelf they helped produce.

By Bob Hennelly

New York City’s 250,000 municipal retirees recently got a form letter from the Office of Labor Relations announcing Mayor Eric Adams’ administration is no longer abiding by its September 1 deadline for the implementation of its Aetna Medicare Advantage Plan, which the New York City Organization of Public Service Retirees [NYCOPSR] has been successfully fighting in court.

By Steve Wishnia

Nurses at New York City public hospitals and other city-run health facilities have won a contract that will immediately raise their salaries by more than $16,000, the New York State Nurses Association announced July 31.

By Bob Hennelly

On the latest episode of the Stuck Nation Labor Radio Hour, we recap last week’s Washington, D.C. rally to save traditional Medicare with Marianne Pizzitola, president of the New York City Organization of Public Service Retirees.

By Steve Wishnia

In February 2022, President Joseph Biden directed the Department of Health and Human Services to develop minimum staffing standards for nursing homes, to remedy the most chronic problem workers and patient advocates have with the quality of care. The federal Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has not yet released its proposed regulations, which were expected this spring — but the nursing-home industry is already opposing them.

Work-Bites Network

On this episode of Labor This Week with host Mark Harrison, we travel to the nation’s capital with New York City municipal retirees fighting to strengthen traditional Medicare nationwide, while struggling to fend off Mayor Eric Adams’ privatization efforts here at home.

By Joe Maniscalco

Ninety-year-old New York City municipal retiree Evie Jones Rich stood on the pavement outside the Manhattan offices of U.S. Senators Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand in 90-plus degree heat on Friday afternoon, and spoke for nearly six minutes straight about the need to save Medicare from increasing privatization.

By Bob Hennelly

The New York City Organization of Public Service Retirees [NYCOPSR] were given a hero’s welcome at a ‘save Medicare’ rally in front of the U.S. Capitol on July 27. Roughly 70 members shared the spotlight with Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), and several other members of the House of Representatives who blasted for-profit Medicare Advantage insurance companies for delaying and denying health care treatment to seniors which they said resulted in an estimated 10,000 deaths a year.

By Steve Wishnia

The Teamsters Union has reached a tentative contract deal with UPS it is calling “overwhelmingly lucrative” and “the most historic tentative agreement for workers in the history of UPS” — and it’s crediting intensive rank-and-file organizing and readiness to strike for the victory.

By Bob Hennelly

On this episode of the Labor Radio Hour, NYC Central Labor Council President Vincent Alvarez talks about Strike Summer 2023 — and the possible implications of a national Teamsters strike against UPS happening at the same time members of SAG-AFTRA and Writers Guild of America are striking against the AMPTP. Locally, the New York Nurses Association went on strike at some private non-profit hospitals. Did COVID give workers new leverage?

By Joe Maniscalco

To SAG-AFTRA President Fran Drescher:

Before launching Work-Bites last fall, I covered the Labor Movement for more than a decade, delivering countless stories on wage theft, worker safety, pay parity, the Fight for $15, you name it.

Work-Bites Network

On this episode of Labor This Week with Host Mark Harrison, former healthcare industry insider turned traditional Medicare advocate Wendell Potter, talks about how “Wall Street’s greed” is now determining “whether or not we get the care our doctors say we need” — or “even the power to see the doctors of our choice.”

By Bob Hennelly

On this episode of the Stuck Nation Labor Radio Hour, we visit with noted labor historian and author Joshua Freeman, a distinguished professor emeritus at CUNY’s Queens College, to discuss the significant increase in union organizing and strike activity across the country. We ask with all of this union activity why is union density actually going down?

By Joe Maniscalco

Unbeknownst to most New Yorkers, the next time they call for help, the EMTs and Paramedics showing up to their rescue might’ve just spent a sleepless night in their cars wondering how they’re gonna cover an unexpected bill.

By Bob Hennelly

Representatives of Mayor Eric Adams’ administration told a New York City Council panel investigating its response to last month’s hazardous air days created by 400 wildfires in Canada, that it was “very proud of the city’s response within the constraints of the forecasting and information” it had at the time.

By Joe Maniscalco

Parks Dept. retiree Michael Sirotta spent nearly a quarter century building up a free arts program for New York City kids. It used to be located on Staten Island. Famous Alumi of the now defunct program include recording artist and actor Ingrid Michaelson who joined the program when she was nine.