By Bob Hennelly

On the same day labor unions gathered in lower Manhattan to memorialize workers who died on the job the previous year, the AFL-CIO released an alarming new report finding workers of color are dying on the job at increasingly higher rates — and fatalities for Black workers hit the highest level in nearly 15 years.

By Bob Hennelly

New York State’s $237 billion dollar budget is a kind of Rorschach test. What you see in it depends very much on who you are. For the unions that represent essential workers, it’s a barometer of their clout in Albany a year after COVID was declared over — and after it sickened or killed so many of their members.

By Joe Maniscalco

New York City municipal retirees fighting to retain the Medicare coverage they were promised when they entered civil service rode Albany-bound buses for more than 150 miles and plied the halls of state power for over two hours on April 15, all in support of legislation aimed at protecting what they’ve already earned.

Dear Scott:

Earlier this year, you filed papers with the New York City Campaign Finance Board to form an exploratory committee as you consider another mayoral run (I received an email from “Team Stringer” asking for a donation).

By Bob Hennelly

Unions representing the mostly women and people of color who comprise the majority of FDNY EMS first responders in New York City tell Work-Bites efforts by the City Council to better protect the workforce from deadly attacks on the job only underscores the pay and benefit disparity between them — and the mostly white males who constitute the bulk of FDNY firefighters.

By Joe Maniscalco

Problematic policing in the subways and a chronic inability to care for emotionally disturbed New Yorkers in need of help are the major reasons why MTA employees are going to work fearing attack, according to those Work-Bites spoke to recently.

By Bob Hennelly 

For years, with a surreal break during the COVID, Atlantic City’s casino workers have been forced to endure life-threatening secondhand smoke because New Jersey’s Democratic machine, the casino operators, and the largest union representing casino workers were all worried enforcing the state’s 2006 Smoke-Free Air Act would hurt business.

By Steve Wishnia

A Bronx landlord trade group has decided that it will not reopen its contract with 32BJ SEIU and seek concessions from the building-service workers union.

By Bob Hennelly

The Association of Legislative Employees (ALE) representing nearly 400 City Council staffers has reached a tentative labor agreement with the legislative body, the union and City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams announced Tuesday.

By Joe Maniscalco

New York City home health aides fighting to pass legislation ending mandatory 24-hour workdays “paused” their five-day hunger strike outside the gates of City Hall on Monday, promising to keep coming back before finally returning with enough outraged workers to encircle the local seat of government on May Day. 

By Joe Maniscalco

In this Work-Bites video, Marian Jones, political educator coordinator with the NYC-DSA Socialist Feminist Working Group, calls out NYC Council Speaker Adrienne Adams' for blocking "No More 24" legislation, saying it's time to support caregivers and stop hiding behind the idea that the state alone should address mandatory 24-hour workdays.

By Joe Maniscalco

In this Work-Bites video, Ain’t I a Woman organizer Jihye Song talks about the ugly legacy NYC Council Speaker Adrienne Adams is creating for herself by ignoring calls to put the "No More 24" bill on the floor for a vote.

By Joe Maniscalco

As recently as last week, New York City Council Speaker [D-28th District] Adrienne Adams was repeating her longstanding claim that she supports home health aides fighting to “improve their working conditions” — but that actually ending the 24-hour workdays they’re forced to endure is a state issue, and, therefore, out of her hands.

By Steve Wishnia

Bronx residential-building workers voted March 21 to authorize a strike if the Bronx Realty Advisory Board landlord trade group reopens their contract and demands concessions.

“The BRAB, they’re crying broke,” 32BJ SEIU secretary treasurer John Santos told more than 200 workers at a rally outside the Bronx Supreme Court building. “Are we ready to roll back wages?”

By Joe Maniscalco

New York City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams can continue sitting on the “No More 24” bill and saying there’s nothing she can do to stop bosses from forcing home health aides to work around-the-clock — but working class New Yorkers are increasingly connecting the dots about what’s really going on here: lots of kowtowing to the bosses at everyone else’s expense.

By Bob Hennelly

At the end of New York City Mayor Eric Adams’ weekly media availability on March 19, decorum went out the window as photographers swarmed him in the hunt for the image that might capture the essence of what had just gone down during the high stakes press conference.

By Joe Maniscalco

Nope. The hearing ostensibly called to decide if AFSCME President Lee Saunders acted appropriately in taking over control of the DC 37 Retirees Association and suspending its officers in February has only sparked more questions about the contentious action and the legitimacy of the subsequent hearing process itself.

By Bob Hennelly

Courtesy of InsiderNJ

It’s everywhere and impacting everything and yet we rarely discuss it because we have come to accept it as the natural order of things, a kind of Machina ex Deus conveyor belt to a “profitable” tomorrow no matter how miserable that future might be. Yet, we still have free will and when something isn’t working, or it could work better, we have to summon the character to act.

By Steve Wishnia

Seeking concessions from hundreds of New York City building-service workers, the trade group representing Bronx landlords has threatened to terminate its four-year contract with 32BJ SEIU — but it has agreed to delay doing so for 30 days beyond the original deadline of March 31

By Bob Hennelly

New York City Mayor Eric Adams this week reiterated his support for full pay parity between the FDNY EMS workforce, which is mostly composed of women and people of color — and the firefighting side of the department, which is mostly white males.