By Bob Hennelly

A class action lawsuit that alleges New York City engaged in discriminatory employment practices in how it compensates hundreds of its probation officers may proceed over the objections of the Adams administration, federal Southern District Judge Ronnie Abrams ruled on May 5.

Courtesy of InsiderNJ

By Bob Hennelly

On May 11, the day President Joe Biden declared an end to the COVID emergency, hundreds of nurses were in Trenton demanding enactment of nurse-to-patient staffing ratios as was done in California in 2004 which studies have documented greatly improved patient outcomes, workplace safety, infection control and nurse retention.

By Steve Wishnia

Fed up with chronic conditions of low pay, understaffing, and disrepair, workers at a for-profit nursing home in the Buffalo suburbs will go on strike for 24 hours on Wednesday, May 17.

By Joe Maniscalco

Stripping New York City municipal retirees of their traditional Medicare benefits and pushing them into a profit-driven Medicare Advantage program will not deliver the $600 million savings Mayor Eric Adams’ administration claims it will.

By Steve Wishnia

“We don’t want pizza parties. We want pay raises so we can stop the hemorrhaging of staff,” Sonia Lawrence, the New York State Nurses Association’s director for New York City Health + Hospitals facilities, told several hundred nurses and supporters gathered in Foley Square May 10.

By Bob Hennelly

On Thursday, May 11 President Biden will end the COVID public health emergency which was declared three years ago by then President Trump.  It has been widely reported that as many as 15 million Americans will lose their health insurance as the states reevaluate their Medicaid status now that the pandemic is declared over. 

Work-Bites.com

On this episode of the Iron Bill Hohlfeld show labor writer Robert Ovetz talks about the “Stockholm Syndrome” impacting too many labor leaders today where they start to “think about the issues from the perspective of the boss” — and how that sad reality correlates to the fight retired trade unionists in New York City are having trying to save their traditional Medicare benefits from being stripped and privatized.

By Joe Maniscalco

New York City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams [D-28th District] is crying foul this week after angry calls for her resignation erupted at a May Day rally outside City Hall on Monday in support of exploited home care attendants across the five boroughs.

By Bob Hennelly

On this episode of the Stuck Nation Labor Radio Hour, Marianne Pizzitola, head of the NYC Organization of Public Service Retirees and Michelle Keller, head of the NYC Coalition of Labor Union Women connect the legacy of May Day to the ongoing battle to preserve the traditional Medicare benefits municipal retirees were promised as active duty workers.

By Steve Wishnia

“Why do you all spend so much money on union-busting?” Laura Rosario, a barista at a Starbucks in Montclair, N.J., demanded May 1, as a group of 15 to 20 Starbucks Workers United members filled the entrance room at the company’s New York regional office near Penn Station.

By Joe Maniscalco

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration recorded the deaths of 20 New York City construction workers in 2015 — the same year a 22-year-old Ecuadorian immigrant named Carlos Moncayo was crushed to death helping to erect what is now Restoration Hardware and the RH Rooftop Restaurant on 9th Avenue in NYC’s Meatpacking District.

By Steve Wishnia

On the chilly gray afternoon of Apr. 28, mourners laid red roses and white carnations on a table in Manhattan’s Foley Square, reading the names of workers who died on the job in New York City in the past year.

By Bob Hennelly

Courtesy of InsiderNJ

They came from all over New Jersey and reflected the state’s diversity yet all of them shared a desire to protect the public’s safety. As a consequence, they paid the ultimate price for keeping that commitment in the brutal onslaught that was COVID which hit an unprepared nation hard.

By Steve Wishnia

In 1960, when the federal minimum wage was $1 an hour and did not cover workers in nursing homes or construction, the New York State Department of Labor established a regulation that home health-care attendants working 24-hour shifts should only get paid for 13 hours, because they have the other 11 hours off for eating, sleeping, and breaks

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.

By Bob Hennelly

 This week a growing coalition of labor, faith-based, and advocacy non-profits that support seniors, the disabled and New York’s low wealth households will be turning up the pressure on Albany to resist what they say are draconian healthcare budget cuts proposed by Gov. Kathleen Hochul.

By Raanan Geberer

There was a time when getting a “good city job” was good advice. Traditionally, civil service has also provided marginalized populations and individuals with difficulties in their lives with avenues to prosperity they might not have otherwise enjoyed.

By Steve Wishnia

Hundreds of home health-care attendants packed the sidewalk outside City Hall on Apr. 12, demanding that the City Council pass a bill to limit their shifts to 12 hours and end the system of them working 24-hour shifts for 13 hours’ pay.

By Bob Hennelly

While close to a thousand New York City retired civil servants rallied outside City Hall to protest Mayor Adams’ deal with Aetna’s Medicare Advantage Plan, inside it was business as usual. On April 11, the City Council passed several bills including legislation to ban the commercial sale of Guinea pigs which had evidently proliferated during the pandemic.

By Joe Maniscalco

Retired FDNY Deputy Chief Richard Alles and 9/11 Victims Compensation Fund activist John Feal were outspoken at this week’s massive rally against efforts to strip New York City municipal retirees of their Traditional Medicare benefits and push them into a profit-driven Medicare Advantage program — tearing into both Mayor Eric Adams and the heads of the Municipal Labor Committee [MLC] for spearheading the drive. Here’s a sample: