By Joe Maniscalco

Community activist Layla Law-Gisiko wants to be in the New York City Council so that she can stop the political machine from getting any closer than it already is to demolishing two thriving communities in Chelsea—and putting yet another nail in public housing’s coffin nationwide in the process.

By Joe Maniscalco

Anyone who thought electing a mayor calling himself a “Democratic Socialist” would be enough to silence working class New Yorkers shunted aside and ignored under the leadership of Mayor Eric Adams, City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams, and Governor Kathy Hochul should take a look at the demonstration that took place outside City Hall on International Women's Day.

By Steve Wishnia

The One Fair Wage campaign, which wants to end the lower minimum wage for tipped restaurant workers, is trying to get that added to proposed city legislation to let New York City restaurants have outdoor dining year-round.

By Joe Maniscalco

It’s day four of what could be the start of World War III, but the United States’ most powerful counterforce to the increasing carnage—in arguably the most “union strong" city in the country—remains conspicuously on the sidelines.

By Bob Hennelly

Over the weekend, President Trump, who ran on a platform of 'no more wars' declared one on Iran with the launch of a massive air attack on that country of over 90 million in coordination with Prime Minister Netanyhu and the Israeli military.

By Steve Wishnia

Faculty at New York University who work on contracts will go on strike Monday, March 23 if they can’t reach a deal with the university by then, their union announced Feb. 27.

By Joe Maniscalco

Newly-minted New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani certainly has had his hands full running back and forth to D.C. trying to make nice with Donald Trump and digging out from the Blizzard of ’26—but he really ought to catch a screening of “A Home Worth Fighting For” if he hasn’t already done so.

By Steven Wishnia

Bruce Springsteen’s “The Streets of Minneapolis” is the best protest song of the 21st century.

It’s an instant song, born in a burst of outrage, much like Florence Reese scribbled the words to “Which Side Are You On?” on the back of a calendar 95 years ago, after Harlan County Sheriff J.H. Blair’s goons broke into her house looking for her husband during a coal miners’ strike in the Kentucky Appalachians.

By Bob Hennelly

The Road to Raleigh 

Last week, Pacifica Radio went to North Carolina to cover Bishop William Barber's march from Wilson to Raleigh, North Carolina's state capital. The 50 miles trek was to draw national attention to the Republican state legislature's push to gerrymander out of existence the 1st CD, an historically Black Congressional district where just 48 percent of the residents are white and a majority are Black or something else. 

By Joe Maniscalco

The New York City Council is a small but powerful fiefdom where bills benefiting ordinary working class people live and die according to the dictates of just one person—the Speaker.

Or at least that’s the way it used to be under former City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams’ rule.

By Joe Maniscalco

Home care workers forced to work slavish round-the-clock shifts and individually owed hundreds of thousands of dollars in stolen wages cheered a New York City Council hearing on the “No More 24” bill this week hoping a majority vote and Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s signature won’t be too far behind.

Editor’s Note: Several years ago, Phil Cohen authored an indispensable training manual in labor law for rank and file workers called “Enforcing Your Rights.” Work-Bites is happy to bring you the serialization of that book beginning with this opening chapter on FMLA. 

The biggest secrets in America are the laws that protect working people.  They don’t teach this in school and you’re certainly not going to learn about them from an employer. The ONLY way workers get educated about their rights is if they have a union. And knowing your rights is only half the challenge.  You then have to learn how to enforce them.

By Joe Maniscalco

Striking NewYork-Presbyterian hospital nurses decisively voted down a tentative deal with management last week that many insist the heads of the New York State Nurses Association [NYSNA] should never have tried to advance—and this weekend many on the picket line were still feeling burned by their own union. 

By Steve Wishnia 

One day after they rejected a proposed new contract by a 3–1 margin, nurses at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital were back on the picket line on both sides of the Washington Heights medical center Feb. 12.

By Bob Hennelly

Massive newsroom staff cuts by oligarch Jeff Bezos to his Washington Post as he seeks favor with the Trump junta, sets off more hand wringing about who killed journalism. Meanwhile, in broad daylight, at the instruction of President Trump, the GOP is trying to steal North Carolina's CD I, an historic Black district.

By Joe Maniscalco

Striking New York City nurses stormed over the Brooklyn Bridge on the 23rd day of their historic walkout last week convinced of the fight’s importance to the rest of American labor movement today, and generations of nurses to come.

This week, they are winding down that strike under a cloud of controversy with many objecting to what they see as a lack of transparency among the upper echelons of the New York State Nurses Association [NYSNA] and a “sellout contract” being forced down the throats of rank and file members.

By Bob Hennelly

On this episode of WBAI’s “What’s Going On?” we look at the aftermath of New York City’s historic deep freeze which so far has claimed the lives of at least 18 people.

By Joe Maniscalco

Safe starting ratios and protections against workplace violence remained top of mind for striking New York City nurses still holding down the line outside Mount Sinai West on 10th Avenue in Manhattan on Friday afternoon—even as at least some of them gave Mayor Zohran Mamdani a pass for endorsing hospital boss-ally Governor Kathy Hochul’s re-election bid. 

By Steve Wishnia

Fifteen months after they began talks for their first union contract, more than 900 professors at New York University will begin voting on whether to authorize a strike on Monday, Feb.

By Bob Hennelly

With the battle lines being drawn between municipal governments and the federal government over immigration, we take a closer look at rural America on this episode of We Decide: America at the Crossroads with Jenna Flanagan. It's been such a key component to the success of Trump's MAGA movement and given the GOP such an edge in the U.S. Senate, where rural states get the same pair of Senators as the most populous states.