Listen: Trump Aims to Kill VA & EPA Unions; Gaza Horror Continues

1199SEIU healthcare workers rally outside 26 Federal Plaza this week in support of Assembly Member Zohran Mamdani’s mayoral campaign.

Thanks for reading! If you value this reporting and would like to help keep Work-Bites on the job AND GROWING, please consider becoming a “Work-Bites Builder” today for just $2.50 per month. Work-Bites is a completely independent 501c3 nonprofit news organization dedicated to our readers — and we need your support! Invite friends, family, and co-workers to subscribe to the Work-Bites Wake Up Call!!

By Bob Hennelly

Throughout our region, Canadian wildfire smoke continues to degrade our ambient air quality. Health officials warn the fine particulates could irritate the eyes, nose and throat, causing respiratory and coronary distress particularly for those with pre-existing conditions. 

Israeli Prime minister Netanyahu's government presses ahead with plans to double down on plans for a full military assault on Gaza City even as the UN reports the number of deaths from starvation continues to grow. The Guardian newspaper reports that after months of a strict Israeli blockade, more aid is trickling in with UN officials declaring that what had been a looming hunger crisis was now "starvation, pure and simple." 

Meanwhile,  the Associated Press reported the targeted killing by Israeli forces of Al Jazeera journalist Anas al-Sharif in Gaza, and four of his colleagues just outside a Gaza City hospital. The Israeli military asserted that al-Sharif was the leader of a Hamas cell, a claim both Al Jazeera and al-Sharif, when he was still alive, vehemently denied. The drone strike also damaged the entrance to the Gaza City hospital's emergency room.

Israel’s military assault on Gaza has taken the lives of close to 250 journalists—making it the deadliest armed conflict for media workers, according to the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs Cost of War Project at Brown University.

Last week, the Trump regime continued its unprecedented attack on the federal civil service and the American labor movement stripping close to 400,000 employees from the Veterans Administration of their collective bargaining rights. The Federal News Network reports that the Trump junta is letting VA law enforcement employees retain their collective bargaining rights.

A few days later, employees with the US EPA had their collective bargaining rights ended.

In this episode of "What’s Going On?” we speak with  former New Jersey Sierra Club leader Jeff Tittel about the consequences for New Jersey, which has the most Superfund sites in the nation. He is joined by Dr. Joe Wilson, labor historian and union consultant and  biography of A. Phillip Ransdolph, the iconic civil rights and labor leader.

We also hear from Joe Colangelo, president of SEIU Local 246, the union that keeps New York City's motor fleet running. He is joined by Adam Cartagena, a psychiatric nurse at the VA's Lyons Hospital in New Jersey who leads AFGE Local 1012.

In the second half of the show we hear from Nadine Williamson, newly elected Senior Executive VP SEIU 1199 who was outside 26 Federal Plaza last week where ICE continues to detain New York City residents who are showing up to keep their court hearing with immigration judges. Willaimson was part of a contingent that turned out to support Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani's bid for Mayor.  

WBAI was also at 26 Federal Plaza to record NYC Comptroller Brad Lander's first-hand account about what he witnessed at the lower Manhattan site where federal immigration officials are illegally operating a detention center in an office building. 

We close out with Queen Mother Imakhu, a member of the WBAI Local Station Board, who was the subject of a beautiful profile by NJ Advance writer Ande Richards headlined “Queen Mother Imakhu: She heals through art, yoga and cultural connection.” 

Listen to the entire show below: