Did Chronic Understaffing Contribute to Murder of EMS Officer on NYC Streets?
BY BOB HENNELLY
Last month’s brutal on-duty murder of FDNY EMS Lieutenant Alison Russo-Elling, who was posthumously promoted to Captain, is no longer front page news in a city that’s struggling to recover its pre-pandemic equilibrium.
Bravest Push New York City Council to Stop Messing with Retirees’ Healthcare
By Bob Hennelly
A split within the Municipal Labor Committee over the future of the healthcare coverage for New York City’s 250,000 municipal retirees is playing out behind the scenes at the City Council over a controversial MLC proposal to change the city’s Administrative Code 12-126 that requires the City Council’s approval.
New York’s 24-Hour Shifts Are a Scandal - But Who’s Doing Anything About It?
By Steve Wishnia
A proposed New York City law to abolish 24-hour shifts for home health-care workers has near-universal support — but only in principle. Opponents wanna know how to pay for it.
Montreal Bus Operators Find the Road Just as Bumpy as Their U.S. Counterparts
By Joe Maniscalco
Threats to personal safety and underfunding are making it tough for cities all across the United States to attract new bus operators — but those same factors are hitting Canadian transit workers just as hard.
‘We Lost a Hero Today’ - NYC Lifesaver is Killed on Duty
By Bob Hennelly
A veteran FDNY EMS Lieutenant was stabbed multiple times while she went to grab a late lunch on Thursday afternoon less than a block from her EMS Station in Queens. FDNY EMS Lt. Alison Russo-Elling, 61, was transported in critical condition to Mt. Sinai Hospital where she died from her injuries, according to a statement released by the FDNY.
Stuck Nation Radio: Discrimination in the FDNY; Vax Mandates, And the Battle for Universal Healthcare
By Bob Hennelly
In this week’s episode of Stuck Nation Radio, New York City Firefighter Regina Wilson, former president of the Vulcan Society, an affinity group composed of FDNY’s Black employees, discusses the status of race and gender equity within the fire department - plus the end of the vax mandate for municipal workers, and the ongoing battle for single payer healthcare.
Empowered Workers Are Making Unionizing ‘Cool & Sexy’
By Joe Maniscalco
With no shortage of expert analysis aimed at understanding the resurgence of union organizing across the country, the dancers at the only unionized strip club in the United States probably have the best: union organizing is on the rise because it has once again become “cool” and “sexy.”
The Head of Vermont’s AFL-CIO Wants to Democratize Your Union
By Joe Maniscalco
Vermont AFL-CIO leader David Van Deusen is sitting outside a tavern in Montpelier about to grab a beer when he starts talking about how important independent journalism is to the American Labor Movement.
Taking On the Boss? A Lifelong ‘Troublemaker’ Has Some Advice
By Joe Maniscalco
Frank Emspak has been making trouble for powerful elites his whole life. Sometimes as a pugnacious member of the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers [UE], other times as executive producer of Workers Independent News (WINS). Now approaching 80, Frank Emspak is still mixing it up and making trouble — and he’s urging today’s generation of workers to do the same.
Delays and Loopholes: How US Labor Law is Failing Workers
By Steve Wishnia
U.S. labor law is supposed to protect workers’ right to organize — but employers regularly evade it by exploiting the slow-moving system and its weak or nonexistent penalties for violations, leading labor lawyers say.