By Joe Maniscalco

As far as many working class people are concerned, New York has become an increasingly strange and cockamamie place where shuttering neighborhood hospitals, stripping retirees of their traditional Medicare coverage, forcing older women of color to work round the clock shifts as home health aides, and selling off NYCHA housing are all treated as viable economic actions—but compelling Wall Street traders to pay their taxes and help keep the whole place from completely falling apart is just crazy talk.

By Steven Wishnia

Every Democrat running for election this year should get a tattoo on the back of their writing hand: “You’re Supposed to Be the Party of Working People.”

By Steve Wishnia

As a caravan of striking Uber and Lyft drivers neared City Hall on Oct. 23, many of their rear windshields bore “Stop Unfair Deactivations!” placards.

A bill pending in the New York City Council is intended to do just that. Intro 276, sponsored by Councilmember Shekar Krishnan (D-Queens) and 11 others, would prohibit the “wrongful deactivation” of drivers at the two “high-volume for-hire vehicle” companies.

By Joe Maniscalco

As terrible as former New York City Transit worker Lloyd Archer knew profit-driven Medicare Advantage health insurance would be for TWU Local 100 retirees like him, he didn’t think they’d be experiencing the level of pain they’re experiencing now. 

By Steve Wishnia

Hundreds of Uber and Lyft drivers formed a massive caravan from Hudson Yards to City Hall Oct. 23, marking a one-day strike to protest the companies locking drivers out of their apps to avoid triggering an increase in the drivers’ share of fares.

By Joe Maniscalco

“We are winning this Fight!”

New York City municipal retirees rallied outside City Hall on Wednesday in advance of a new bill by City Council Member Chris Marte that could finally end Mayor Eric Adams’ ongoing campaign to strip former city workers of the Medicare health insurance coverage they where promised at the start of their civil service careers.

By Bob Hennelly

On this episode of the Stuck Nation Labor Radio Hour, we dedicate our entire show to a blockbuster report from the New York City Department of Investigation finding serious problems the with non-profit contractors overseeing the city’s homeless crisis.

By Phil Cohen

Part III – Labor Board Crisis

During the bargaining period and through September, I made countless trips to Winston-Salem, presenting a total of thirty-four witnesses, some of whom had to return with me to provide supplemental affidavits in regard to information discovered during the Board’s own investigation.

By Joe Maniscalco

The annual Workers Unite! Film Festival is back in New York City for its 13th season this week, presenting another rare opportunity to shift the focus away from the corporate bosses—and place it squarely on the real world struggles and triumphs of working people everywhere.

By Phil Cohen

Confronting ‘Anti’s’ in the Breakroom

We learned that anti-union leader Billy Key was planning to take vacation and visit the breakroom on all three shifts to gather signatures on decertification cards. This would be in violation of a strict company policy prohibiting non-scheduled employees (whether on vacation or off-shift) from entering the building. I discussed this with Joe Wells, Rory Ford, and the corporate attorney, all of whom assured me the rules would be enforced.

By Bob Hennelly

As of this broadcast, there’s just 21 days left until the November 5, General Election. Early voting has already started in Virginia, Minnesota, South Dakota, Vermont, and Illinois. California, Indiana, New Mexico, Wyoming and Ohio all came online last week. This week, early voting gets underway in Georgia, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, North Carolina, Rhode Island, Tennessee, and Washington State. 

By Phil Cohen

Editor’s Note: This is Part I of Phil’s three-part saga looking back at the earlier 1990’s battle against Kmart’s decertification campaign in North Carolina. 

He who is skilled in attack flashes forth from the topmost heights of heaven like a thunderbolt – Sun Tzu (The Art of War)

In 1992, Kmart opened a distribution center in Greensboro, North Carolina. Within a year, its workers had been organized by ACTWU (currently Workers United). Management refused to negotiate in good faith, resulting in a bitter three-year-long first contract fight.

By Bob Hennelly

This episode of the Stuck Nation Labor Radio Hour comes to you on Indigenous Peoples’ Day—previously known as Columbus Day—a federal holiday named for the Italian explorer who falsely claimed to have discovered America when it was already inhabited by indigenous people  he violently attacked and enslaved.

By Bob Hennelly

On this episode of the Stuck Nation Labor Radio Hour, we visit with New York City Central Labor Council President Vinnie Alvarez about the significance of last week’s big win for the International Longshoremen’s Association [ILA]. The union’s 3-day strike earned workers a 62 percent wage hike. 

By Steve Wishnia

More than 2,500 workers at a Brooklyn-based home health-care agency, along with another 880 at a medical lab in Nassau County, have added themselves to the ranks of 1199SEIU.

By Ryn Gargulinski

If you start having nightmares about your job, it’s time to get a new job. That’s one of the self-imposed rules I created some 25 years ago when one of my bosses showed up as Satan in a hallucination while I was going through the DTs.

By Joe Maniscalco

This week, New York City municipal retirees donned chilling death shrouds and held a mass “die-in” in front of Aetna’s Manhattan offices at One Soho Square to dramatize their opposition to Mayor Eric Adams’ ongoing Medicare Advantage push—and the need to finally pass the New York Health Act.

By Joe Maniscalco

New York City Mayor Eric Adams has been hit with a 57-page, 5-count federal indictment, been called unfit to serve, and urged to resign—but he’s still determined to push 250,000 municipal retirees into a profit-driven health insurance plan experts and the courts say diminishes existing Medicare benefits.

By Bob Hennelly

Over the weekend, indicted New York City Mayor Eric Adams continued to express his intention to remain in office as he fights multiple corruption charges that could get him 45 years in prison. In this episode of the Stuck Nation Labor Radio Hour, we speak with New York City Comptroller Brad Lander about his take on this unprecedented crisis in city governance. 

By Phil Cohen

Editor’s Note: This is Part III of Phil’s three-part sequel to his previous Work-Bites series centering on his dangerous days scratching out a living as a New York City cabbie. Read Parts I and II.

I met with Morris and Herb on the morning of my first official day as manager. They handed me two keys; one for the desk compartment containing the books and rent money, and the other for the basement which I had to inspect on a weekly basis to see if the boiler or plumbing needed servicing.