By Ryn Gargulinski

“Deck the halls, my ass.” That used to be my attitude toward the holidays, and I was lucky enough to find another person who felt that way. So we’d get together in December and mope.

Then she mentioned how the thought of moping all December made her depression creep into November. So we started commiserating even earlier.

By Bob Hennelly

Courtesy of InsiderNJ

America’s hospitals are in the throes of a workforce crisis that’s driven by the lack of safe nurse to patient ratios that’s forced tens of thousands of veteran nurses to flee the profession and one in five new nurses to leave in their first year, according to witnesses who testified before a field hearing convened by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) on Oct. 27,  on the New Brunswick’s Rutgers University campus.

As a consequence, even though hospitals are scrambling to find nurses, over one million nurses are opting to stay sidelined with just half of New Jersey’s 140,000 licensed nurses choosing to work in the state’s hospitals.

By Bob Hennelly 

This week, a permanent memorial at the site of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire in New York City will be dedicated to the mass casualty event that killed 146 mostly young immigrant women garment workers on March 25, 1911 and sparked a national movement for workplace safety and worker rights.

By Robert Ovetz

The August Cemex ruling by the National Labor Relations Board has stirred up hope among the labor movement. After 40 years, the board finally responded to employer union-busting by requiring that the company recognize the union and begin bargaining.

By Joe Maniscalco

Yesterday, on the social media platform-formerly-known as Twitter, I noted a few interesting posts from the Work-Bites news feed referencing the UAW’s strike against the Big Three auto giants and a video clip of Starwood Capital Group CEO Barry Sternlicht, in particular, earning his money.

By Ryn Gargulinski

Krissie was easily Boss Man’s most favorite employee – and by far my least. We worked side-by-side at a New York City ice cream shop in the early 1990s. She was blond, perky and went to NYU. I was gruff, brunette and went to the bar. I also had dirt under my nails and liked to wear ripped-up tank tops to work.

By Joe Maniscalco

One night, just before Halloween, Rachel Rivera heard an alarming crack come from her 4-year-old daughter’s bedroom. She immediately raced in, scooped up the child in her arms and got out quick — right before the ceiling fell in on their Brooklyn apartment. Hurricane Sandy killed some 50 New Yorkers in 2012. Rivera and her daughter Marisol just missed being counted among the deceased.

By Joe Maniscalco

Something ugly and very troubling recently happened on the picket line outside the Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick, New Jersey that should tell us a lot about the ongoing strike at that particular institution.

But more importantly, it should also serve as a sobering warning about the class struggle working people throughout this country now face — and have, indeed, always faced when they collectively stand up to the bosses. 

By Bob Hennelly

The United Auto Workers strike against the nation’s big three automakers is a high stakes gambit that comes at a time when an increasing number of Americans support the union movement but the percentage of them actually in one is at an all time low.

By Timothy Sheard

Dear nursing sisters and brothers,

You have to be tender and tough if you are going to stay in the nursing profession for very long. Tender, because our patients are so vulnerable. So at risk of injury and death. So afraid.

And tough, because the work is so demanding, the bosses so disrespectful, and the pain of losing a patient so deep.

By Robert Ovetz

During the Cold War, the demand for higher pay became the demand for “income equality.” The reason appeared obvious: for the past five decades the income gap between the top and bottom has grown rapidly.

By Robert Ovetz

Open bargaining is becoming more widespread as more unions like one of my own adopt it. As it does, we should not take for granted that conservative leadership is willingly going to allow the rank and file to obtain more power at the bargaining table. Open bargaining, which allows the rank-and-file to participate in bargaining sessions,  is a threat to both conservative leadership and the boss.  

By Joe Maniscalco

To SAG-AFTRA President Fran Drescher:

Before launching Work-Bites last fall, I covered the Labor Movement for more than a decade, delivering countless stories on wage theft, worker safety, pay parity, the Fight for $15, you name it.

By Ray Rogers

COMMENTARY: Ray Rogers is a pioneering labor strategist & organizer, and founder of CorporateCampaign.org

CVS Health Corporation (CVS), headquartered in Woonsocket, Rhode Island, is the world's largest healthcare company. It owns CVS Pharmacy, a retail pharmacy chain; CVS Caremark, a pharmacy benefits manager; Aetna, a health insurance provider, and many other brands.

By Steve Wishnia

New York State Attorney General Letitia James is suing the owners of four nursing homes, charging that they siphoned off more than $83 million in Medicare and Medicaid payments through a “related-party transaction” scheme where they channeled money intended for resident care to businesses they, their associates, or family members own.

By Bob Hennelly

Courtesy of InsiderNJ

Canada is on fire.

The smog fallout downwind has set off air quality alerts for 13 states south of the border with the worst air quality currently being reported in upstate New York from Syracuse to Binghamton. Toxic smog has extended down along the East Coast and into the Ohio Valley as millions of Americans are being advised to curtail outdoor activity if they have pre-existing health conditions.

By Bob Hennelly

Courtesy of InsiderNJ.com

It’s a tough fact of life but ignoring it won’t change it, whereas, confronting it head on just might. Unions continue to be at a distinct disadvantage in a system where corporations use the legal system and their vast wealth to violate labor law with impunity.

BY RILEY JAMES

When my daughter was in second grade, she appeared in a school play as a member of the White House Press Corps. She could have tried out for the role of president, or vice president, or Secret Service agent, but she knew the role she wanted, because she wanted to be a journalist just like me, and she got it.

By Timothy Sheard

Editor’s Note: Tim Sheard is the founder of Work-Bites’ publishing partner Hard Ball and Little Heroes Press. We’re happy to share this little vignette of old-time New York City with you. Have a great work week!

My dad was a New York City newspaper reporter in the 1940's and 50's. On most mornings, he and his fellow reporters would clock in at work, and then go to the pub to start drinking.

By Steve Wishnia

Along with multiple vows to investigate the “weaponization” of federal agencies against the peaceful tourists who visited the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, another ritual of the Republicans taking control of the House this month was once again changing the name of the Committee on Education and Labor to the Committee on Education and the Workforce.