By Steve Wishnia 

Chants of “No More 24” and “Vote for Marte” alternated on the corner of Clinton and Grand streets on the Lower East Side June 6, as a few hundred people gathered for a rally and march supporting the re-election of City Councilmember Christopher Marte.

By Joe Maniscalco

New York City Council Member Chris Marte—sponsor of the bill protecting municipal retiree health care—dismissed attacks on the legislation as outright “lies” Thursday night on the Lower East Side and predicted the measure will ultimately pass.

By Joe Maniscalco

If Mayor Eric Adams is ultimately successful in blowing up what used to constitute a “good city job” for generations of New Yorkers by pushing Medicare Advantage on 250,000 retirees it’ll be because the political establishment—both “left” and “right” have agreed to ball up the Medicare & Medicaid Act of 1965 and toss it in the garbage can.

And then light the whole thing on fire.

By Bob Hennelly

WBAI Pacifica Radio was graced for several years with the on-air presence of  Tom Robbins, a fearless reporter who did stories about working people and their challenges getting by in a city and nation that increasingly served the rich.

By Joe Maniscalco

After 15 months in receivership, members of the District Council 37 Retirees Association still have no idea this week when they’ll ever regain control of their organization once again following a rare in-person general meeting held at the union’s headquarters on Thursday.

By Joe Maniscalco

Throughout the four-year battle to stop New York City from pushing municipal retirees into a predatory Medicare Advantage health insurance plan and blowing up what used to constitute “a good city job” for generations of New Yorkers—City Council Speaker and now mayoral hopeful Adrienne Adams has stood on the sidelines and worked hard to make sure her fellow legislators remained there, too. 

By Steve Wishnia

A bill to revive New York’s tax on stock transfers, which has been rebated since 1981, could bring the state some $13 billion a year in revenue—but it is drawing almost zero support from labor unions.

By Bob Hennelly

After a 3-day strike, the Teamsters Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers & Trainmen (BLET) have reached a tentative deal with NJ Transit. 

“While I won’t get into the exact details of the deal reached, I will say that the only real issue was wages and we were able to reach an agreement that boosts hourly pay beyond the proposal rejected by our members last month, and beyond where we were when NJ Transit’s managers walked away from the table Thursday evening,” Tom Haas, head of the union’s unit that represents the NJ Transit engineers, said in a statement.

By Joe Maniscalco

Are the seven justices now deliberating the case that will largely determine if the City of New York is allowed to strip municipal retirees of their Traditional Medicare benefits sitting on the New York State Court of Appeals…or the NYS Court of Schlemiels?

By Joe Maniscalco

Whether or not the New York State Court of Appeals ultimately delivers a ruling blocking New York City Mayor Eric Adams from stripping municipal retirees of their Traditional Medicare benefits, retirees insist legislation in the City Council protecting them must be enacted.

By Joe Maniscalco

A couple of years ago, Mayor Eric Adams defended trying to strip 250,000 municipal retirees of their Traditional Medicare benefits and throwing them into a profit-driven Medicare Advantage health insurance plan in the the worst ways possible on two separate occasions in Brooklyn where Work-Bites was present.

By Bob Hennelly

On Friday, federal immigration police seized Newark Mayor Ras Baraka off of a public street outside Delaney Hall, a controversial private prison, operated by the GEO Corporation, formerly known as Wackenhut Corrections Corporation. This for-profit, publicly traded, multinational employs 18,000 people at over 50 sites here and abroad.  

By Joe Maniscalco

Two years ago at a Medicare rally for municipal retirees outside the gates of City Hall, IBT Local 831 retiree John Pinard expressed his utter astonishment and disbelief that a labor leader he considered “the most courageous fighter I’ve ever seen in my life” was trying to strip former civil servants like him of their traditional healthcare and push them into a profit-driven Medicare Advantage health insurance plan.

By Joe Maniscalco

New York City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams doesn’t think voters should believe Andrew Cuomo when he says he won’t try and push municipal retirees into a Medicare Advantage health insurance plan if he’s elected mayor this fall.

By Steve Wishnia

Thousands of people crammed Foley Square May Day for a May 1 rally and march to protest basically everything the Trump-Musk regime is doing. “100 Days of Cruelty is Enough” read one sign.

By Steve Wishnia

The amplified first half of a chant calling out City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams could be heard a block west of City Hall May 1, as several hundred people filled the sidewalk for a “Fight for Our Health and Lives” rally.

By Joe Maniscalco

Last year, State Senator Pete Harckham stood alongside municipal retirees and surviving 9/11 spouses in Albany, urging passage of a statewide bill protecting them from ongoing efforts to strip their traditional Medicare coverage and force them into a profit-driven Medicare Advantage plan.

By Steve Wishnia

New York State has been rebating billions of dollars in stock-sales taxes to Wall Street for more than 40 years—and legislators and activists are making another try to change that.

By Joe Maniscalco

New York City municipal retirees looking for a trusted ally in City Hall after current Mayor Eric Adams became hellbent on the Medicare Advantage push exited this past week’s mayoral forum at the CUNY Graduate Center generally feeling enthusiastic about the mixed field of candidates vying for their votes.

By Joe Maniscalco

Elderly retail worker Thea Kindos stood out from the tens of  thousands of other protesters who marched down 5th Avenue in New York City on Saturday afternoon to denounce the Trump administration and what many fear is his all-out assault on whatever might be left of American democracy.