By Bob Hennelly 

The Biden administration’s failure to address the immigration crisis — as it was ending billions in local COVID aid — is deepening an urban crisis that’s continued to get worse as COVID receded, according to John Samuelsen, international president of the Transport Workers Union. Samuelsen’s union represents 155,000 workers across the country in the airline, railroad, transit, university, utility, and service sectors.

The TWU president warns there’s ample evidence this beltway inattention to America’s urban centers is causing a major political realignment on the ground that could kneecap Democrats’ prospects in 2024…

By Steve Wishnia

Some 1,800 workers at two branches of the University of Rochester Medical Center in New York State will go on strike for 17 hours on December 13, after little progress in more than three months of contract talks.

The main sticking point, 1199SEIU lead negotiator Tracey Harrison told Work-Bites, is that URMC management has so far refused to raise the starting wage at the lowest pay grade, now $15.45 an hour. Management is “not interested in paying a living wage,” he says.

By Phil Cohen

Jessie called during December, 2019. “I got notified I got to go see Dr. Yates, who did my surgery. I was wondering if you could come with me.”

I asked why and she said, “There’s things I need you to see.”

I agreed to the unusual request and the appointment was scheduled for January 2. I told her to present me as an old friend, accompanying her for moral support. The doctor would be on his best behavior if he even suspected I was her union rep.

By Bob Hennelly

On this episode of the Stuck Nation Labor Radio Hour, we welcome NYC Comptroller Brad Lander; New York City Organization of Public Service Retirees President Marianne Pizzitola; Be A Hero Co-Executive Director  Jamila Headley; and NYCCouncil Member Alexa Aviles [D-38th District] to the program.

Together, we talk about the life and legacy of Ady Barkan, the universal healthcare activist and lawyer who died last month at 39 from ALS complications…

By Phil Cohen

Editor’s Note: Phil Cohen is a union organizer and author who’s seen a lot during his many years in the labor movement. He has graciously agreed to share some of his “War Stories” with Work-Bites. Here is the first installment in an ongoing series…

On August 11, 2018, I attended a victory picnic in Eden, North Carolina with members of Workers United Local 294-T. We were celebrating the defeat of their employer’s illegal union busting plot at the Mohawk Industries plant where they worked. Committee members tended the grills. Some brought side dishes.

By Bob Hennelly

Courtesy of InsiderNJ

Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital and the United Steelworkers Nurses Local 4-200 — on strike since Aug. 4 — have reached a tentative contract deal, the union and hospital confirm.

By Ryn Gargulinski

The day came when I absolutely, positively, no-bones-about-it hated my desk. I hated it so much I could no longer even sit there. That day arrived after I parted ways with a work-from-home job that had kept me chained to that desk for 10-hour days with tracking software — for two years straight.

Ugh. My mind was numb. My body was probably showing signs of that sitting disease thing. And my soul rebelled in a big way, refusing to sit at that desk for even a minute!

By Bob Hennelly

On this episode of the Stuck Nation Labor Radio Hour, we welcome Jonathan Smith, president of the New York Metro Area Postal Union, Judy Danella, president of the United Steelworkers Nurses Local 4-200, and New York State Assemblyman Phil Steck to talk about the UAW contract, the ongoing nurses strike in NJ — and getting our money back from Wall Street!

By Bob Hennelly

Just before the Thanksgiving holiday, New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy and his chief of staff Diane Gutierrez-Scaccetti held a zoom session with the leadership of the United Steelworkers Nurses Local 4-200 that’s been on strike for safer staffing at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital. It was the first such meeting  with the union that represents 1,700 nurses that have been out since Aug. 4.

By Steve Wishnia

Swedish postal workers are refusing to deliver mail or packages to Tesla facilities in order to support a strike by mechanics at the company’s service centers there. It is one of many solidarity actions by Swedish unions that would be illegal under U.S. law.

By Bob Hennelly

While most all of the nation is at home enjoying the joys of their families at Thanksgiving, members of United Steelworkers Nurses Local 4-200 will be out on the picket line in front of the Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick, New Jersey on strike for safer staffing as they have been since Aug. 4.

These 1,700 dedicated healthcare professionals have been stripped of their healthcare coverage by RWJBarnabas, which is self-insured. The multi-billion dollar “non-profit” hospital chain paid its CEO $17 million in the second year of the COVID pandemic, and has shelled out well over $100 million to pay replacement nurses in their full court press to break the union, according to the union.

By Bob Hennelly

On this week’s edition of the Stuck Nation Labor Radio Hour, we zero in on two prolonged strikes in New Jersey, as well as New York City’s ongoing struggle to deliver basic services. The average response time for a city ambulance to answer a life-threatening emergency now exceeded ten minutes. It’s time to start collecting the Stock Transfer Tax  — is it also time to strike, too? 

By Joe Maniscalco

More Americans are taking their demand for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza to the streets — but it continues to be a different story in the workplace where many are feeling pressure from their their bosses — and sometimes, their unions — to keep their heads down and their mouths shut.

By Joe Maniscalco

Advocates pushing for passage of the “No More 24” bill in the New York City Council put 200 or more people in the streets outside City Hall on Thursday, Nov. 16, loudly demanding Speaker Adrienne Adams stop blocking the measure or step down. They promise to be back and be even louder — next month.

Merry Christmas, Feliz Navidad, and Shèngdàn Kuàilè, indeed, Adrienne!

By Bob Hennelly 

New York City public sector unions are blasting Mayor Eric Adams’ mid-year budget cuts aimed at closing a $7 billion dollar budget gap Hizzoner says was created by a confluence of addressing the migrant crisis, the ending of federal COVID aid and the slowing of tax revenues.

By Bob Hennelly

Courtesy of InsiderNJ

As expected, this last election voter turnout was abysmal and I suspect that in New Jersey, where elected officials have been known to look to get their family members into office, the power structure likes to keep it that way.

By Joe Maniscalco

Underneath the fight municipal retirees are waging in New York City and other places around the country to save their traditional Medicare benefits from the onslaught of privatized Medicare Advantage plans lies a systemic defect in today’s labor movement that if not finally corrected guarantees some harder times ahead — for retirees and active workers alike.

By Bob Hennelly

On the latest episode of the Stuck Nation Labor Radio hour we look at both the UAW deal, as well as the ongoing United Steelworkers Nurses Local 4-200 strike for safer staffing at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick, NJ. Plus, we take an up close look at military spending and the Move the Money campaign…

By Bob Hennelly

New York City’s dual homelessness and migrant crisis could be poised to get much worse as the Adams administration presses ahead with mid-year austerity measures as federal COVID aid dries up and tax revenues lag.

By Bob Hennelly

On this episode of the Stuck Nation Labor Radio Hour, Retired FDNY EMT Marianne Pizzitola, president of the New York City Organization of Public Service Retirees updates listeners on her group’s campaign to prevent the Adams administration and the heads of the MLC from forcing 250,000 retired civil servants off traditional Medicare and onto a predatory Aetna Medicare Advantage Plan.

Noted labor historian Joe Wilson, who also joins the discussion, notes  how tens of thousands of city employees who worked in lower paying titles like FDNY EMS, rely on their existing retiree healthcare to get by.