Listen: From Lac-Mégantic to East Palestine—the Rail Freight Industry’s Ongoing Threat to Safety
By Bob Hennelly
As we get farther into the 2024 campaign cycle, WBAI and the Pacifica Radio Network are committed to raising the issues that impact health and safety of the broad swath of America’s 330 million people, all too many of whom are marginal to the campaign conversation curated by the corporate news media.
A case in point would be the risks and dangers that are posed to so-called corridor communities like East Palestine, Ohio or Paulsboro, New Jersey…
OSHA Heat Rules Could Save Your Life—But Will They Be Enforced?
By Steve Wishnia
Worker-safety advocates hailed the proposed federal heat-protection standards released by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration July 2—but they also warn that they must be adequately enforced.
U.S. Supreme Court Crowns King Donald I
By Steve Wishnia
The basic principle of American democracy, if summed up in one sentence, is: THE PRESIDENT IS NOT A KING.
Three days before the Fourth of July, the Supreme Court retroactively crowned King Donald I.
Listen: The Sleeping Giant Stirs…Plus, NYC Docs Eye Strike
By Bob Hennelly
This past weekend, thousands of union members, low wage workers and social justice activists turned out in support of the Mass Poor People’s and Low Wage Workers Assembly in Washington D.C., convened by Rev. Dr. William Barber and Rev. Dr. Liz Theoharis.
Outside v. Inside: NYC Home Care Workers Denounce 24-Hour Shifts; CPC Head Concedes It’s Not Fair and Should Stop
By Joe Maniscalco
Forcing older immigrant women of color to work punishing 24-hour shifts as home care workers is not fair and should stop, the head the agency responsible for assigning many of those same jobs told Work-Bites this week.
‘We Decide-America At the Crossroads’: Pacifica Radio Network’s 2024 Campaign Coverage
Editor’s Note: Building on the success of its Moral Monday Labor Radio Hour With Rev. Dr. William Barber & Bob Hennelly, the Pacifica Radio Network [PRN] is launching real time coverage of the seminal live events from the 2024 election cycle starting with the June 29th “Mass Poor People’s and Low-Wage Workers’ Assembly and Moral March on Washington, D.C. and the polls.”
Biden-Trump Sideshow Ignores Working Class Struggles
By Steve Wishnia
Working people’s issues barely got mentioned in the presidential debate June 27.
Well, in the first minute, President Joe Biden declared “working-class people are still in trouble,” when asked a question about the economy, and blamed inflation on “corporate greed” and the “chaos” he inherited from Donald Trump after COVID.
Railroad Bosses Did Not Have to ‘Vent and Burn’ Toxic Gas After East Palestine Derailment, Panel Finds
By Steve Wishnia
The February 2023 derailment of a freight train in East Palestine, Ohio, that forced the evacuation of more than 2,000 people was caused when an overheated wheel bearing on a hopper car caused the axle to separate, the National Transportation Safety Board said in a summary of its forthcoming report released June 25.
Listen: Mulgrew Talks UFT Reversal on MAP Push; Why NYC Doctors Could Strike
By Bob Hennelly
On this episode of the Stuck Nation Labor Radio Hour, UFT President Michael Mulgrew talks about his decision to pull UFT support from the ongoing scheme to push 250,000 New York City municipal retirees into a profit-driven Medicare Advantage plan, as well as “current healthcare negotiations for in-service and pre-Medicare retirees.”
Listen: Never-Ending War Around the World and in the Supermarket
By Bob Hennelly
As we gather for this episode of the Moral Monday Labor Radio Hour with Rev. Dr. William Barber and Bob Hennelly, the Israeli assault on Gaza continues. Since Oct. 7, when at least 1,200 Israelis were killed and 240 taken hostage, 37,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza, 70 percent of them women and children, according to the American Friends Service Committee.
Mulgrew’s Out! Can Mayor Eric Adams Continue Pushing Medicare Advantage Without Him?
By Joe Maniscalco
All eyes in NYC’s Medicare Advantage fight should be on Mayor Eric Adams today, after UFT President Michael Mulgrew’s announcement over the weekend that he’s reversing course and no longer supporting the plan to push 250,000 municipal retirees into a profit-driven Medicare Advantage health insurance program.
Phil Cohen War Stories: In Debt to the Mafia
By Phil Cohen
Editor’s Note: This is Part Three of Phil’s three-part saga about his days driving an illegal taxi [otherwise known as a “gypsy cab”] on the streets of New York City back in the late 1960s when he was still just a teen.
I returned to New York out of money and learned that the landlords of The Apartment had refused to renew the lease. Desperate to reorganize my life, I found what appeared to be a professionally run taxi stand on Sutphin Boulevard in Jamaica.
Western NY Nursing-Home Workers OK Near-Deadline Contract
By Steve Wishnia
Workers at four rural nursing homes in Western New York voted to ratify a two-year contract, 1199SEIU announced June 21. The agreement, reached just before a strike deadline of June 13, covers about 300 workers at facilities in Allegany, Aurora Park, Orchard Park, and Westfield operated by the for-profit Absolut Care/RCA Servicer chain.
The Hottest Fires Forge the Hardest Steel: Fighting NJ Nurses Win Big Gains
By Bob Hennelly
Earlier this month, rank and file members of HPAE—New Jersey’s largest nurses’ union working at three different hospital systems—voted to authorize strikes if they didn’t get provisions in their contracts guaranteeing safer staffing ratios.
Listen: Fallout from NJ Powerbroker’s Indictment—And More!
By Bob Hennelly
On this episode of the Stuck Nation Labor Radio Hour, we have news about News Guild CWA journalists at the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle who had been on strike against Gannett for 19 days, ratifying their contract containing a 15 percent raise over the next two years, which will translate to a $10,000 to $20,000 raise for several of the lowest paid and longest serving members of the bargaining unit.
Phil Cohen War Stories: ‘There’s Always Action in Jamaica’
Editor’s Note: This is Part Two of Phil’s three-part saga about his days driving an illegal taxi [otherwise known as a “gypsy cab”] on the streets of New York City back in the late 1960s when he was still just a teen.
By Phil Cohen
The Lower East Side began at 3rd Avenue and 14th Street, becoming progressively more dangerous as it approached the East River. Once you hit Alphabet City the transition accelerated. Avenue D bordered the river.
Listen: Confronting the Scourge of Poverty-Stricken Kids Living On a Melting Planet
By Bob Hennelly
On this week’s edition of the Moral Monday Labor Radio Hour with Rev. Dr. William Barber & Bob Hennelly, we’re confronting kids in poverty, our out-of-control-war economy, and our melting planet. We also discuss why we march.
NYC Transit Union Protects Medicare; UFT Retirees Beat Mulgrew!
By Joe Maniscalco
Nope, contrary to what some of the most powerful union leaders in the country would have working people believe—organized labor does not have to abandon the Medicare benefits it fought so hard to achieve in favor of profit-mad Medicare Advantage health insurance plans [MAPs].
Listen: NYC Docs Ready to Walk?/Taxi Workers Want Wall St. to Pay For MTA
By Bob Hennelly
On this episode of the Stuck Nation Labor Radio Hour, we talk with physicians from the Doctor’s Council SEIU representing thousands of physicians working at New York City’s Health + Hospitals Corporation.
Here’s How to Survive Toxic Work Zones!!
By Ryn Gargulinski
“Mondays suck.” “Today is going to be the worst workday ever.” “The world is going to hell in a handbasket.” Raise your hand if any of those thoughts crossed your mind in the last year. The last month. The last week. The last five minutes?