Work-Bites.com

Mark Harrison returns this week to Work-Bites with the latest edition of “Your Labor Minute”, taking a quick look at the Rutgers University strike settlement in New Jersey and what faculty and staff are getting out of the new four-year deal.

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.

By Bob Hennelly

In the first half of this week’s Tax Day episode of the Stuck Nation Labor Radio Hour, we speak with Abigail E. Disney, an Emmy-winning documentary filmmaker, activist, philanthropist, and host of the podcast "All Ears."

By Bob Hennelly

In the second half of this week’s Stuck Nation Labor Radio Hour, we catch up with New York City Council Member Christopher Marte (D-Dist. 1) who confronts the scandal of home health aide being forced to work 24-hour shifts and NYC’s ongoing campaign to strip municipal retirees of their traditional Medicare benefits.

By Work-Bites

On this episode of the Iron Bill Hohlfeld Show, Bill welcomes David Tubiolo from the Westchester County Board of Legislators. During the conversation, the two get to talking about the importance of promoting the unionized Building Trades as a smart alternative to the traditional 4-year college route. The discussion then, however, turns to unscrupulous developers, who Tubiolo says, “use workers who are not of age sometimes.”

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:

By Joe Maniscalco

The supposedly most progressive New York City Council to date could choose to advance proposed legislation protecting traditional Medicare benefits for municipal retirees — instead it’s watching ailing senior citizens fighting for what they’ve earned collapse on the streets and being out-lefted by the Republican members in its ranks.

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.

By Steve Wishnia

With a bill to end home health-care aides’ punishing 24-hour shifts on hold in the City Council, activists are planning a rally outside City Hall Wednesday, Apr. 12, to push Speaker Adrienne Adams to schedule a vote on the measure.

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.

By Helen Klein

Tehmina Brohi spent several years working in the nonprofit sector before deciding to try something new, founding a small clothing manufacturing company that would bring the centuries-old traditions of her Pakistani homeland to modern American consumers.

By Bob Hennelly

While professional beltway Democrats urge their party to be more moderate as the country steels itself for 2024, there’s evidence the labor movement, which acts as the arms and legs of the party, is growing increasingly militant and more willing to strike to upend the status quo.

By Bob Hennelly

On this episode of the Stuck Nation Labor Radio Hour we are reflecting on Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King’s pro-union legacy 55 years after his murder in Memphis where he came to support striking sanitation workers.

By Bob Hennelly

This week marks the 55th anniversary of the assassination of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in Memphis, Tennessee. Dr. King was in Memphis as an act of solidarity with Memphis Sanitation workers who had been out on strike since early February after sanitation workers Echol Cole and Robert Walker were crushed by their malfunctioning trash compactor.

By Joe Maniscalco

New York City municipal retirees urging Mayor Eric Adams to revisit the health insurance contract he just signed with Aetna to include an option for traditional Medicare want Hizzoner to know they’re just as “strong and determined” as millions of French people in the streets protesting President Emmanuel Macron’s grossly undemocratic bid to raise France’s retirement age to 62.

By Bob Hennelly

New York City Council members wasted little time blasting Mayor Eric Adams as “shameful” for signing a pact with Aetna Insurance and pushing the city’s 250,000 retired civil servants into a profit-driven Medicare Advantage healthcare plan.