NYC Managerial Employees Association Hails Heroes Standing Up for Retirees and Intro. 1008
By Joe Maniscalco
This past Thursday, members of the New York City Managerial Employees Association [MEA] took time out from their steadfast advocacy on behalf of public service workers to honor fellow advocate Marianne Pizzitola, head of the New York City Organization of Public Service Retirees [NYCOPSR], and New York City Council Member Crystal Hudson [D-35th District].
Home Care Workers Cheated Out of Millions Blast ‘Korrupt Kathy’ Hochul Ahead of Election
By Joe Maniscalco
Ripped off home care workers who have watched their wage theft claims vanish into a bureaucratic blackhole under New York State Governor Kathy Hochul’s watch, pressed their demands for justice and restitution this week—openly charging the chief executive with a cocktail of corruption, misogyny, and racism less than two weeks until the Nov. 3 gubernatorial election.
Mamdani Denounces Amazon’s ‘Exploitation’ of Delivery Workers
By Steve Wishnia
More than 200 people, mostly Teamsters Union members, rallied on the steps of City Hall Oct. 22, calling on the City Council to pass the Delivery Protection Act, a bill to curb outsourcing of delivery work by Amazon and other companies.
Listen: More on NYC Labor Unions Defending Upcoming Elections
By Bob Hennelly
On this episode of We Decide on WBAI we welcome Work-Bites correspondent Steve Wishnia to talk more about the Oct. 15 labor rally on the steps of the Farley Post Office that drew close to a thousand people and representatives from dozens of unions.
‘Democracy’s on the Line’: NYC Unions Unite to Protect Elections
By Steve Wishnia
Hundreds of workers from a score of unions packed the two-block-wide steps of New York City’s main post office Oct. 15 for a rally launching a labor campaign to protect elections from tampering by the Trump administration.
Are the 9/11 Files Changing Anything? And Why Not?
By Joe Maniscalco
In the movie Jaws there was only one Mayor Larry Vaughn running around telling the good people of Amity that it was safe to get back into the water.
But as the recently-released 9/11 files show, the City of New York had a whole bunch of money-driven Mayor Larry Vaughns running around town after September 11, 2001 telling everybody it was safe to go back to their Lower Manhattan jobs and classrooms.
Listen: Mamdani Says ICE is ‘Rotten to the Core’ Following Shooting in the Bronx
By Bob Hennelly
It was just after 4 p.m. on Oct. 8, in the Marble Hill section of The Bronx with school just getting out and the streetscape was filled with kids and parents. It was in that setting that 28-year-old Oscar Belgal, in his Honda CR4, was confronted by masked ICE agents including one with a long gun.
Paging New York City’s Social Media Mayor…You Have Lots of Constituents On Hold!
By Joe Maniscalco
A recent Work-Bites Instagram post teasing a story about the EMS crisis facing New York City has garnered 12,949 views at the time of this writing—not an insignificant amount.
But because the Mayor’s Office has refused to acknowledge repeated requests for comment, that’s 12,949 times readers interested in learning Mayor Mamdani’s views, thoughts, and feelings about what happened at St. Francis Preparatory High School in Queens on the morning of Sept 28—were denied that right.
Listen: Home Care Workers, Tenants, and Retirees Continue to Bring the Heat Despite Mamdani’s Cold Shoulder
By Joe Maniscalco
This week’s Labor and Healthcare Confidential show featured advocates from both the Fulton and Elliott-Chelsea Tenants Against Demolition coalition—and the Ain’t I a Woman Campaign fighting to end the 24-hour workday in New York City’s home care industry.
Over the course of the lively hour-long interview with host Marianne Pizzitola we learned once again that the battle to save public housing from privatization and the “No More 24” fight to end round-the-clock shifts for home care workers—as well as the ongoing struggle to protect New York City municipal retiree healthcare from diminishment—are not disparate issues.
No More 24 Advocates Tell NYC Council Speaker Julie Menin: ‘Buckle Up, Girl’—This Fight is Not Over!
By Joe Maniscalco
Two women. Two City Council Speakers. Two machine party politicians proving once again that in the City of New York, big money and special interests count for a whole lot more than the needs of working people—and even more so if those working people happen to be older immigrant women of color.
Listen: War Abroad; Workers and EMS in Crisis at Home
By Bob Hennelly
The Guardian is reporting that in the US-Israel's war of choice on Iran, the US has dispatched a third aircraft carrier strike group to the Middle East, as President Trump once again threatens that country with annihilation just weeks ahead of the US midterm elections.
New Yorkers in Danger of Falling into EMS Dispatcher ‘Abyss’, Council Member Warns
By Joe Maniscalco
On Sept. 28, a 14-year-old student at St. Francis Preparatory School in Queens with a known heart condition waited so long for an FDNY EMS ambulance to arrive after suffering a medical emergency that his mother reportedly had to bundle him into a car and rush him to the hospital herself.
‘Incomprehensible!’ Noted Scholar And Worker Advocate Denounces Union Opposition to Ending the 24-Hour Workday
By Joe Maniscalco
After numerous street actions, including two separate hunger strikes and sit-ins, New York City home care workers fighting to end round-the-clock shifts and institutionalized wage theft in the industry will return to City Hall on Oct. 8 to continue the struggle.
Trump Doesn’t Get to Decide Where the People Get Their News—And Neither Does Zohran
By Joe Maniscalco
Donald Trump received an uncharacteristic bit of pushback after banning CNN, MS Now, and Politico from the White House, and he deserves to get a helluva lot more. He still defended his naked authoritarianism standing outside Gracie Mansion this week alongside New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, rambling on about how he has an “obligation” to keep fake news out of the White House.
Listen: DashDash Says it ‘Screwed Up’ After Ripping Off Workers; Agrees to $131M Settlement
By Bob Hennelly
This week, the Mamdani administration announced a landmark $131 million settlement with DoorDash that systematically underpaid 260,000 delivery workers out of their wages.
Watch: 1199 Hospital Workers Call on Trump to Reinstate TPS
Unionized healthcare workers took to the streets of New York City on Sept. 24 to call on the Trump administration to reinstate Temporary Protective Status [TPS] for Haitian immigrants in danger of being deported without it.
Public Housing Tenants Fighting Demolition Shut Down NYCHA Meeting—Jeer ‘Sellout’ Mayor Mamdani
By Joe Maniscalco
Public housing tenants staring down the wrecking ball in Chelsea and their allies effectively shut down another NYCHA Board Meeting on Wednesday morning in opposition to ongoing city plans to demolish the Fulton and Elliott-Chelsea [FEC] Houses on Manhattan’s West Side.
NYCHA Tenants Press Demolition Fight Despite Termination Threats—Insist Mamdani Be More Than a ‘Regular Politician’
By Joe Maniscalco
Working class NYCHA tenants fighting eviction and the ultimate privatization and demolition of their tree-lined communities in Chelsea have a pair of important hearings coming up in the next two months that will go a long way to determining their struggle.
Listen: UN General Assembly Convenes Amidst A World Increasingly At War
By Bob Hennelly
As the world's nations come together in New York City for the UN General Assembly, the Guardian is reporting that European intelligence spy agencies are warning that Russian President Vladimir Putin is planning more decisive action against NATO. The newspaper reported that French president Emmanuel Macron summoned all of the contenders in that nation's 2027 presidential elections for an emergency meeting on what Macron believes is the growing threat from Russia which looms as the war between Russia and Ukraine continues to intensify.
‘They Won’t Be Able to Stop Us’: What One Man Learned After Occupying Zuccotti Park 15 Years Ago
By Joe Maniscalco
This week marked the 15th anniversary of Occupy Wall Street. But just a small band of activists, many of whom were at the Zuccotti Park encampment in Lower Manhattan that sparked the whole movement back in 2011, were on hand Sept. 17 to actually mark the occasion.
Jerry Ashton, “unintended activist” and proud son of a union trucker out of the state of Oregon, was one of them.