By Bob Hennelly with Joe Maniscalco

Despite two consecutive losses in court and ample evidence that Medicare Advantage is a bad deal for seniors — the City of New York continues to push it’s municipal retirees into a privatized for-profit health insurance plan.

The Adams administration and the heads of the Municipal Labor Committee insist healthcare costs are bleeding the city dry.

By Joe Maniscalco

Organizing working class power against entrenched systems of economic exploitation and oppression can take a lot out of you. But Standing Up: Tales of Struggle authors Ellen Bravo and Larry Miller also want you to know that it can fill you with something, too — love.

By Steve Wishnia

“Are you guys striking?” a young woman in a wool cap and ponytail asks a barista handing out flyers in front of a Starbucks in Queens, November 17.

Yes, says barista Faith Bianchi, giving her a short overview about the workers seeking benefits. “I was going to get some lattes, but I won’t,” the woman answers. A man standing nearby holds a “No Contract, No Coffee” sign, its red and green colors matching the holiday cups Starbucks is giving away.

By Bob Hennelly

With just 24 hours to go before the deadline for ballots to be postmarked for the election of the United Auto Workers leadership by the rank and file — one of the candidates for the top post wants a federal court to extend the process for another 30 days due to “widespread reports that workers are unaware of the election” and incumbent union officials have failed to get the word out to the members.

By Steve Wishnia

Voters in Illinois solidly approved amending the state’s constitution to protect the right to collective bargaining and the union shop, while Tennessee voted to embed its ban on the union shop in its constitution.

By Bob Hennelly

Courtesy of InsiderNJ

Friday, over 200 journalists with the NewsGuild CWA put their careers at risk by walking off their jobs as local reporters at Gannett owned newspapers at the Asbury Park Press and The Record as well as a dozen other news rooms around the country because the company refuses to bargain with their union in good faith.

By Steve Wishnia

This Nov. 8, voters in Illinois will consider amending the state’s constitution to protect the union shop, while Tennessee will consider adding the state’s law banning the union shop to its constitution.

By Joe Maniscalco

That’s for daddy’s work!

IBEW Local 3 apprentice Natalie Rivera returned home after her first day on the job as a union electrician still in her hardhat and hi-viz vest but the image just did not compute for her tiny two-year-old daughter.

By Joe Maniscalco

Threats to personal safety and underfunding are making it tough for cities all across the United States to attract new bus operators — but those same factors are hitting Canadian transit workers just as hard.

By Joe Maniscalco

With no shortage of expert analysis aimed at understanding the resurgence of union organizing across the country, the dancers at the only unionized strip club in the United States probably have the best: union organizing is on the rise because it has once again become “cool” and “sexy.”

By Joe Maniscalco

Vermont AFL-CIO leader David Van Deusen is sitting outside a tavern in Montpelier about to grab a beer when he starts talking about how important independent journalism is to the American Labor Movement.

By Joe Maniscalco

Frank Emspak has been making trouble for powerful elites his whole life. Sometimes as a pugnacious member of the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers [UE], other times as executive producer of Workers Independent News (WINS). Now approaching 80, Frank Emspak is still mixing it up and making trouble — and he’s urging today’s generation of workers to do the same.

By Steve Wishnia

U.S. labor law is supposed to protect workers’ right to organize — but employers regularly evade it by exploiting the slow-moving system and its weak or nonexistent penalties for violations, leading labor lawyers say.

By Joe Maniscalco

Sacha Alvarez was barely six months into her new job driving the BX40 bus route in The Bronx for MTA New York City Transit when a crazed man swinging a foot-long tree branch burst onto her vehicle and started clubbing her on the head. The February attack understandably left her dubious about her future behind the wheel — but she’s not alone. Cities across the country are discovering hardly anyone wants to drive a bus anymore.