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.

By Steve Wishnia

New York State Attorney General Letitia James is suing the owners of four nursing homes, charging that they siphoned off more than $83 million in Medicare and Medicaid payments through a “related-party transaction” scheme where they channeled money intended for resident care to businesses they, their associates, or family members own.

By Bob Hennelly

Mayor Adams and the City Council have reached a “handshake” agreement on a $107 billion budget that restores some of the controversial cuts that were proposed by the administration as it grappled with the fiscal fallout from the pandemic, the nation’s immigration crisis, and the end of federal COVID aid.

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.

By Joe Maniscalco

Union leaders backing the privatization of traditional Medicare benefits may appear oblivious to what they’re doing to the lives of municipal retirees, but do they understand what their doing to the labor movement overall? According to retirees fighting privatization in New York City — they’re going to “destroy labor as we know it” and it’s up to retirees to “organize and protect labor.”

By Steve Wishnia

Nurses at the city’s 11 public hospitals are finally reporting “significant progress” in contract talks with the New York City Health + Hospitals agency, their union says.

In talks June 23, the New York State Nurses Association said in a statement, both sides agreed to an escalated calendar of bargaining sessions in July, with the goal of reaching a contract deal by Aug. 1. Their current agreement expired Mar. 2.

By Bob Hennelly

On this episode of the Stuck Nation Labor Radio Hour, we welcome New Jersey Poor People Campaign’s delegates Rachel Dawn Davis, with WaterSpirit, and Pastor Rupert Hall from Trenton’s Turning Point United Methodist Church who recently joined nearly 1,000 other activists from over 30 states at the three-day PPC event that culminated in a lobby day in Congress.

By Joe Maniscalco

Editor’s Note: This is the first of a multi-part report following today’s New York City Organizaiton of Public Service Retirees’ press conference held outside City Hall.

Sonia Agron, a retired EMT for the City of New York stood in a downpour outside City Hall this afternoon talking about how she and her husband — a retiree from the NYPD — are both “very sick” with 911-related illnesses and feeling very betrayed by all those trying to strip municipal retirees of their traditional Medicare health benefits and force them into a profit-driven Medicare Advantage program run by Aetna.

Work-Bites.com

On this episode of The Labor Week with host Mark Harrison, New York municipal retirees speak out about what it really means to have their traditional Medicare healthcare benefits stripped from away from them and replaced with a privatized Medicare Advantage program.

By Joe Maniscalco

This week, District Council 37 Executive Director Henry Garrido immediately started calling City Council Member Charles Barron’s measure to preserve a half-century commitment to retiree healthcare “the single most irresponsible proposal in the history of New York City’s Council” — he forgot to include the New York State Legislature where Assembly Member Kenneth Zebrowski is responsible for introducing virtually the same legislation.

By Bob Hennelly

New York City Council Member Charles Barron (D-Brooklyn) has introduced the legislation that’s been sought by New York City municipal retirees to preserve their access to traditional Medicare.

By Joe Maniscalco

New York City municipal retirees rallying outside City Hall in support of new legislation by Council Member Charles Barron protecting traditional Medicare got more than they expected Thursday, when they learned New York State Assembly Member Kenneth Zebrowski is also introducing similar legislation at the state level.

By Joe Maniscalco

Members of a mostly Republican caucus inside the New York City Council filed an amicus brief today in New York State Supreme Court supporting municipal retirees seeking a preliminary injunction against Mayor Eric Adams’ plan to strip city workers of their traditional Medicare coverage and force them into a profit-driven Medicare Advantage plan run by Aetna.

By Bob Hennelly

Courtesy of InsiderNJ

As we celebrate Juneteenth this week, we should reflect on the reality that the abomination of slavery is not entirely in our collective rear view mirror.

It endures.

By Bob Hennelly

On this Juneteenth Edition of the Stuck Nation Labor Radio Hour we’re broadcasting from Washington DC at the Poor People’s Campaign Moral Poverty Action Congress. NYC Council Member Charles Barron is on hand to talk about new legislation being introduced this week to safeguard traditional Medicare benefits for municipal retirees, and much more.

By Joe Maniscalco

There’s a lot for a labor writer who’s covered the trade union movement for more than a decade to think about on Juneteenth. But this year, the thing I keep coming back to is how the single most important truism working people can understand right now might go back to something Maya Angelou talked about while taping a 1997 Oprah Winfrey television special in her pajamas.

By Bob Hennelly

New York City Mayor Eric Adams’ administration and a coalition of 11 unions representing more than 32,000 uniformed officers have reached a tentative contract deal that raises pay 3.25 percent in the first two years, 3.50 percent in the third and fourth year, with a 4 percent bump in the fifth and final year.

By Joe Maniscalco

Aetna is one the largest private health insurance companies in the United States today, in the top 10, in fact. And this week, we learned the company is alleging to have handled 82 million Medicare Advantage claims last year alone — and out of that vast number, they say, “only” 3.4% were subjected to prior approval, with a mere 0.49% ultimately being denied. Whoa!

By Bob Hennelly

UFT President Michael Mulgrew’s working with Mayor Adams to push New York City’s 250,000 retired municipal employees into a controversial for-profit Medicare Advantage health insurance plan appears to be paying dividends for his union’s active members under terms of a tentative contract announced June 13 at City Hall.

By Bob Hennelly

In the middle part of the show, NYC Comptroller Brad Lander explains why he opted to reject the Aetna Medicare Advantage Plan that Mayor Adams is forcing 250,000 New York City retired civil servants to enroll in. Lander explains how pending litigation by the New York City Organization of Public Service Retirees raises significant questions about the legality of the procurement.