By Joe Maniscalco

War has never been good for working class people anywhere in the world and it isn’t good for working class people anywhere in the world now.

Roughly two hundred people assembled in Times Square this past Sunday afternoon for an emergency street action challenging the Trump administration’s unconstitutional bombing of Iran over the weekend. Similar emergency demonstrations were also held in dozens of places around the United States.

By Bob Hennelly

On this episode of “What’s Going On?’ we talk more about the big victory New York City municipal retirees have won in the fight against Medicare Advantage with New York City Organization of Public Services Retirees Marianne Pizzitola.

By Joe Maniscalco

Despite Mayor Adams announcement on Friday that he is abandoning the Medicare Advantage push, New York City municipal retirees will continue to “hound” uncommitted City Council members until they finally sign onto legislation protecting the Traditional Medicare and MediGap benefits they earned on the job.

By Steve Wishnia

Uber and Lyft drivers rallied outside the gates of City Hall June 18, calling on the City Council to pass a bill that would prohibit app-based cab companies from “deactivating” them—cutting off their access to the app—without just cause, and set up a city-run procedure for them to defend themselves before they get sacked.

By Joe Maniscalco

New York City Mayor Eric Adams announced today that his administration is abandoning the Medicare Advantage push—at least for now.

“We’re announcing that we're not moving forward with the Medicare Advantage plan, specifically because the mayor, over many months, has heard from retirees that they're worried about whether it'll be affordable for them,” Spokesperson Liz Garcia told Work-Bites on Friday.

By Joe Maniscalco

Walmart, the largest employer of women and people of color in the nation didn’t exactly have a stellar track record on racial equity before the family-controlled operation decided to roll back its Diversity, Equity, Inclusion programs in the wake of the Trump administration’s DEI vendetta.

By Steve Wishnia

“I’m somewhat surprised to see this hearing kept on the schedule,” Marc Freedman of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce told an Occupational Safety and Health Administration panel June 16, the first day of two weeks of hearings on federal heat-safety rules proposed by the Biden administration last year. President Donald Trump suspended consideration of all pending regulations in an executive order Jan. 20.

By Joe Maniscalco

“Oh, you silly civil servants…your big mistake was believing what you were reading and what you were told throughout your whole career working for the City of New York—thanks, though, for helping out during 9/11, Hurricane Sandy, Covid, and all the rest of it. You’re the best, God bless!

By Bob Hennelly

On this episode of “What’s Going On?” we talk with New York City Central Labor Council President Vincent Alvarez to discuss his retirement and the status of the American labor movement as he turns the page. Alvarez helped to restore the image of the CLC after it was rocked by a massive corruption scandal before he was elected its first full-time president in 2011. 

By Joe Maniscalco

“We deserve a mayor who will meet this moment,” Assembly Member and mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani [D-36th District] told supporters ahead of New York City’s massive “No Kings”  march down 5th Avenue on Saturday.

By Joe Maniscalco

In 2018, my partner and I found ourselves in Paris, France on the eighth day of the burgeoning Yellow Vest Movement navigating the bonfires openly burning along Franklin Delano Roosevelt Avenue.

By Steve Wishnia

The best time for housing in New York was the post-World War II period, says Renee Keitt, head of the tenant association at the Elliott-Chelsea Houses in Manhattan. It was the era when more than two-thirds of the New York City Housing Authority’s (NYCHA) 180,000 apartments were constructed, the state’s Mitchell-Lama program built another 140,000 units designated for working and middle-class residents, and union-backed developments added thousands more.

By Bob Hennelly

On this episode of “What’s Going On?” We speak with Maura Collinsgru, policy director with Citizen Action, Carol Tanzi, chief shop steward of USW Steelworkers Nurses Local 4-200, and Larry Hamm, founder of the People’s Organization for Progress. 

By Bob Hennelly

The Trump administration sparked community protests in Los Angeles over the weekend after sending squads of military gear-equipped ICE agents on high-profile raids throughout the city including a local Home Depot where many day laborers typically gather for work.  

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 Bob Hennelly

In our current dystopian circumstance, it's hard to sort out the signal from the static. The barrage of Trump assaults on science, human rights, public health, global humanitarian aid, as well as on democracy and the rule of law itself make it near impossible to get our collective equilibrium.

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 Joe Maniscalco

Songs have always been integral to working class struggle and the broader labor movement overall. Think of your favorite anthems from Odetta, Phil Ochs, Woody Guthrie, or Bob Dylan and their amazing ability to instantly invoke the spirit of solidarity in anybody listening.

By Bob Hennelly

On this episode of WBAI’s “What’s Going On?” we get a regional update from Shameka Burnette-Mathews from 1199SEIU about the union's strike at five for-profit nursing homes in western New York. We also speak to Debbie White, president of NJ's HPAE, which represents 14,000 nurses and healthcare workers, about the strike vote taken by her members at Southern Ocean Medical Center, which is part of the massive Hackensack Meridian Health hospital chain.