Strike-Ready Teamsters Reach Deal; Force UPS to Scrap Baloney Two-Tier System
By Steve Wishnia
The Teamsters Union has reached a tentative contract deal with UPS it is calling “overwhelmingly lucrative” and “the most historic tentative agreement for workers in the history of UPS” — and it’s crediting intensive rank-and-file organizing and readiness to strike for the victory.
An Open Letter to SAG-AFTRA President Fran Drescher…
By Joe Maniscalco
To SAG-AFTRA President Fran Drescher:
Before launching Work-Bites last fall, I covered the Labor Movement for more than a decade, delivering countless stories on wage theft, worker safety, pay parity, the Fight for $15, you name it.
WATCH: Wendell Potter on how Wall Street’s Greed Threatens Your Health
Work-Bites Network
On this episode of Labor This Week with Host Mark Harrison, former healthcare industry insider turned traditional Medicare advocate Wendell Potter, talks about how “Wall Street’s greed” is now determining “whether or not we get the care our doctors say we need” — or “even the power to see the doctors of our choice.”
LISTEN: Why is Union Density Declining? NYC Retirees Champion Medicare/And More!
By Bob Hennelly
On this episode of the Stuck Nation Labor Radio Hour, we visit with noted labor historian and author Joshua Freeman, a distinguished professor emeritus at CUNY’s Queens College, to discuss the significant increase in union organizing and strike activity across the country. We ask with all of this union activity why is union density actually going down?
CVS/Aetna Out to Steal All They Can While Hurting Public Employees…
By Ray Rogers
COMMENTARY: Ray Rogers is a pioneering labor strategist & organizer, and founder of CorporateCampaign.org
CVS Health Corporation (CVS), headquartered in Woonsocket, Rhode Island, is the world's largest healthcare company. It owns CVS Pharmacy, a retail pharmacy chain; CVS Caremark, a pharmacy benefits manager; Aetna, a health insurance provider, and many other brands.
Making It Work With Mental Health Challenges…
By Raanan Geberer
The workplace is inherently stressful — periodic evaluations, supervisor quirks, management changes, unfriendly co-workers, and the ever-present possibility of a pink slip landing in your inbox — it’s a lot for employees to handle. And it can be even more challenging if you’re someone dealing with mental health issues.
A Toxic Fog of Complacency…
By Bob Hennelly
Hemispheric Wildfire Plume Puts Millions of Workers at Risk
This past week, officials appeared to be caught very much by surprise by the toxic plume which left New York City’s air the unhealthiest on the planet. The Canadian wildfires that were the source of the major public health threat had been making headlines north of the border for weeks but were not on the radar of local emergency managers until the plume was upon them.
LISTEN: It’s Left to Everyday Workers to ‘Make it Right’
By Bob Hennelly
On this Memorial Day episode of the Stuck Nation Labor Radio Hour, we’re talking about the courage and sacrifices working people are making throughout this county. First up is a conversation with Debbie White, Registered Nurse and head of Health Professionals and Allied Employees (HPAE) — the largest healthcare union in New Jersey about the ongoing fight for safe staffing laws in the Garden State.
WATCH: Why Battling Medicare Advantage Has to Be a National Fight!
Work-Bites.com
On this episode of “Labor This Week,” host Mark Harrison welcomes Marianne Pizzitola, president of the New York City Organization of Public Service Retirees and Jeff Johnson, co-president of the Puget Sound Advocates for Retirement Action in Washington State, who talk about how the coast-to-coast drive to strip municipal retirees of their traditional Medicare benefits is actually all part of a powerful nationwide agenda to further privatize healthcare throughout this country.
LISTEN: The ‘Wall Street-ization’ of US Healthcare and More!
By Bob Hennelly
Raising Hell and Money For Labor Radio — it’s the May Pledge Drive Edition of the Stuck Nation Labor Radio Hour. On this special episode, Marianne Pizzitola, president of the FDNY EMS Retirees Association and NYC Organization of Public Service Retirees joins nationally syndicated progressive radio host Arne Arnesen who explore how the resistance against Mayor Eric Adams’ campaign to strip municipal retirees of their traditional Medicare benefits and push them into a profit-driven Aetna Medicare Advantage program is actually part of national fight back against the Wall Street-ization of healthcare.
These States are Working Overtime Attacking Worker Power…
By Steve Wishnia
The job of laying metallic lath in the heat of a Texas summer is about to get harsher and more dangerous — while in Florida, Governor Ron DeSantis is quickly making himself the Crown Prince of Union-Busting.
‘Too Much Month and Not Enough Food’: ‘This Is Working’ Returns!
Work-Bites
No matter where you and your family happen to be right now — we know you can relate to the following sentiment: “Way too much month, and not enough food.” That’s what the theme of “This Is Working” Episode 8 from creator Jen Grace is all about. We hope you enjoy it.
LISTEN: It’s Time to ‘Move the Money’
Work-Bites
Municipal retirees being stripped of the Medicare benefits they were promised after decades of service; home care attendants forced to work 24-hour shifts at half the pay; public sector nurses grappling with chronically low wages and increasingly untenable patient ratios — the list of economic injustices heaped on working people goes on and on. And why? A supposed lack of money.
Mission NOT Accomplished, Joe… Healthcare is Code Blue!
By Bob Hennelly
Later this week, President Joe Biden is expected to declare the nation’s COVID pandemic emergency over, even as the nation’s healthcare system is in a deepening access and affordability crisis Washington is in active denial because the medical industrial complex is paying them to look the other way.
Workers Memorial Day ‘23: Black & Latino Deaths are Soaring; Uncle Sam is Spending $3.99 on Job Safety…
By Bob Hennelly
Despite decades of progress in worker safety since the creation of the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration in 1970, there’s troubling evidence of deadly backsliding particularly for the nation’s Black and Latino workers, according to a comprehensive analysis from the AFL-CIO, the nation’s largest labor federation.
WATCH: The Fed Won’t Be Happy Until You’re Unemployed
Work-Bites.com
On this “Your Labor Minute” episode, host Mark Harrison breaks down why the friendly folks at the Federal Reserve want to see more working people unemployed!
Wall Street Between You and Your Doctor: Former Goldman Sachs Exec Anointed Aetna Boss
By Bob Hennelly
CVS Health has named Brian Kane as the Executive Vice President and President of Aetna, effective September 1. He will report to CVS Health President and CEO Karen S. Lynch. Last month, New York City Mayor Eric Adams signed a contract with Aetna as part of the administration’s campaign to strip 250,000 municipal retirees of their traditional Medicare benefits and push them into a profit-driven Medicare Advantage program.
‘Dig Into the Truth’ With Labor Author Bill Fletcher Jr. And His Latest: ‘The Man Who Changed Colors’
By Joe Maniscalco
Labor writer and activist Bill Fletcher Jr was on a bus in Cuba back in 1999 as part of a special delegation to that country which also included actor Danny Glover and author Walter Mosley, when he was inspired to share an idea he had percolating in his head for a murder mystery.
Listen: NYC Retirees Converging on City Hall Today; Grable Challenges Lynch for PBA President
By Bob Hennelly
On this episode of the Stuck Nation Labor Radio Hour, we get an update from Marianne Pizzitola, retired FDNY EMT and head of the New York City Organization of Public Service Retirees, and trailblazing FDNY Captain Brenda Beckman who explain why hundreds of New York City retired civil servants will be converging on City Hall at Noon today to protest Mayor Adams forcing them into a privatized Aetna Medicare Advantage program, as well as the the threat the elimination of traditional Medicare poses to 9/11 survivors.
We Remember the late Jane LaTour in Her Own Words…
By Joe Maniscalco
Jane LaTour was a soft but powerful voice — one that the Labor Movement could ill afford to lose in these increasingly hard times. But she’s gone now, succumbing last week, like so many other good people, to the working class scourge of cancer. She was 76.