Regulatory Fixes are Fine - But We Need Labor Leaders Who’ll Take on the Boss
By Robert Ovetz
The August Cemex ruling by the National Labor Relations Board has stirred up hope among the labor movement. After 40 years, the board finally responded to employer union-busting by requiring that the company recognize the union and begin bargaining.
CEOs are Really Class War Warlords — And That’s Why They’re Paid the Big Bucks!
By Joe Maniscalco
Yesterday, on the social media platform-formerly-known as Twitter, I noted a few interesting posts from the Work-Bites news feed referencing the UAW’s strike against the Big Three auto giants and a video clip of Starwood Capital Group CEO Barry Sternlicht, in particular, earning his money.
Listen: Strikes Updated; Shutdown Averted, And More!
By Bob Hennelly
In part I of this week’s episode of the Stuck Nation Labor Radio Hour, we look at the 18th day of the United Auto Workers strike against the Big Three auto giants. The UAW has just reached a tentative contract deal with Mack Trucks avoiding a work stoppage at that iconic brand that’s now owned by Volvo. Talks were also scheduled to resume between SAG-AFTRA and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers. The 160,000-member actor’s union has been out since July 14. The Writers Guild reached a tentative contract deal last week, which ended their five-month strike. Rank and file union members will be voting on the 94-page contract this week.
BREAK TIME WITH RYNSKI: How to Deal with Coworkers Who Drive You Nuts!
By Ryn Gargulinski
Krissie was easily Boss Man’s most favorite employee – and by far my least. We worked side-by-side at a New York City ice cream shop in the early 1990s. She was blond, perky and went to NYU. I was gruff, brunette and went to the bar. I also had dirt under my nails and liked to wear ripped-up tank tops to work.
‘Council Members Gotta Stand Up [and] Have Some Spine,’ Intro. 1099 Sponsor Says
By Joe Maniscalco
New York City municipal retirees have spent nearly three years battling the most powerful public sector union heads in the city and now two separate mayoral administrations who together have shown themselves to be hellbent on tearing apart what a “good city job” used to mean in this town.
Like you, that all sounds absolutely crazy to City Council Member Charles Barron [D-42nd District], too.
The Looming Shutdown:‘Political Theater’ Showing Total Contempt for Essential Workers
By Bob Hennelly
Hundreds of thousands of federal workers and contract workers are on edge this week with just a few days to go before a possible federal government shutdown engineered by former President Donald Trump’s most ardent partisans in the House of Representatives.
‘She is My Speaker - I Will Not Cross the Speaker’: ‘Protocol’ is Blocking a Hearing on Intro. 1099
By Joe Maniscalco
New Yorkers across the five boroughs elect 51 City Council members to represent them — but only one of those people actually calls the shots. If you didn’t already know it, there’s a “protocol” in place inside the hallowed halls of the New York City Council where members do not cross the will of one person — Speaker Adrienne Adams.
NY Home Health Aides Sue Labor Dept. for Dropping Wage-Theft Probe
By Steve Wishnia
Five current or retired home health-care aides are demanding the state Department of Labor reopen its investigation into their wage-theft complaints. In a class-action suit filed in late August, they allege the department’s decision to end its probe after four years was “arbitrary and capricious,” says Carmela Huang of the National Center for Law and Economic Justice, one of the lawyers representing them.
Listen: Labor Lions Take on Hospital Bosses in New Jersey
By Bob Hennelly
On this episode of the Stuck Nation Labor Radio Hour, Rev. Dr. William Barber joins Sara Nelson, president of CWA’s Association of Flight Attendants, in full support of United Steelworkers Nurses Local 4-200 on strike for safer staffing at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick, NJ since Aug. 4.
The hospital’s parent RWJBaranabas, which is self-insured, terminated the nurses’ health insurance earlier this month and has embarked on an expensive anti-union drive.
Scandal in the Streets of NYC: ‘People Are Dying Unnecessarily’
Is a major occupational health issue for essential workers just being ignored?
By Bob Hennelly
For only the second time since the FDNY absorbed the city’s EMS workforce in 1996, the average response time for a city ambulance to answer a life-threatening emergency exceeded ten minutes. At 10:43, that response time was 36 seconds longer than the previous year, according to the Mayor’s Management Report [MMR] looking at fiscal year 2023 — and a 1:21 longer than what was reported four years ago.
NLRB Steps In and Calls Liangtse Wellness Firings Illegal; Workers Demand Jobs Back
By Steve Wishnia
Two massage workers at a New York City spa are trying to get their jobs back after the National Labor Relations Board formally accused their employer of having fired them illegally last November.
“They have consistently treated us unfairly,” Tian Xiao May Qing, speaking through a translator, told reporters outside Liangste Wellness at 150 East 55th St. on Sept. 19. “When we complained, he fired us.”
Dead Planet Blues: What’s a Poor Working Person to Do?
By Joe Maniscalco
One night, just before Halloween, Rachel Rivera heard an alarming crack come from her 4-year-old daughter’s bedroom. She immediately raced in, scooped up the child in her arms and got out quick — right before the ceiling fell in on their Brooklyn apartment. Hurricane Sandy killed some 50 New Yorkers in 2012. Rivera and her daughter Marisol just missed being counted among the deceased.
Steely Nurses Stand Defiant Against Millionaire Hospital Bosses
By Bob Hennelly
Striking nurses at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick, New Jersey have voted overwhelmingly to continue their job action even after the self-insured nonprofit hospital chain cut off their healthcare.
Listen: Nurses on Strike, Retirees in Revolt, Climate Chaos and More!
By Bob Hennelly
On this action-packed episode of the Stucknation Labor Radio Hour, we’re talking about the UAW’s “Stand Up” strike; United Steelworkers Nurses Local 4-200’s strike for safer staffing at the Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Jersey and what at stake for the general public — and SAG-AFTRA video gamers eyeing their own strike vote.
But that’s not all…
‘Jersey Elbow’ Epitomizes the Built-In Hostility Bosses Have for Workers Everywhere
By Joe Maniscalco
Something ugly and very troubling recently happened on the picket line outside the Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick, New Jersey that should tell us a lot about the ongoing strike at that particular institution.
But more importantly, it should also serve as a sobering warning about the class struggle working people throughout this country now face — and have, indeed, always faced when they collectively stand up to the bosses.
UAW Strikers: Turning the Clock FORWARD for the First Time Since Reagan?
By Bob Hennelly
The United Auto Workers strike against the nation’s big three automakers is a high stakes gambit that comes at a time when an increasing number of Americans support the union movement but the percentage of them actually in one is at an all time low.
An Open Letter to Striking Nurses at RWJ University Hospital…
By Timothy Sheard
Dear nursing sisters and brothers,
You have to be tender and tough if you are going to stay in the nursing profession for very long. Tender, because our patients are so vulnerable. So at risk of injury and death. So afraid.
And tough, because the work is so demanding, the bosses so disrespectful, and the pain of losing a patient so deep.
‘CEOs Care About One Thing Only - Profit’
By Bob Hennelly
A month-and-a-half into the United Steelworkers Nurses Local 4-200 strike for safer staffing at the Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick, New Jersey and a settlement continues to be elusive as the rhetoric is heating up on both sides.
It’s About Power, Not Income Inequality…
By Robert Ovetz
During the Cold War, the demand for higher pay became the demand for “income equality.” The reason appeared obvious: for the past five decades the income gap between the top and bottom has grown rapidly.
Listen: ‘Safe to Breath’-Revisiting 9/11’s Toxic Lies…
By Bob Hennelly
On this 22nd anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001 attack on the World Trade Center which killed close to 3,000 people, we look at the public health fallout from U.S. EPA and New York City officials telling the world the air was "safe to breathe" following the attack when testing actually showed it was not.
Thousands more have died following the initial attack from their exposure to that toxic air.