Editor’s Note: Several years ago, Phil Cohen authored an indispensable training manual in labor law for rank and file workers called “Enforcing Your Rights.” Work-Bites is happy to bring you the serialization of that book beginning with this opening chapter on FMLA. 

The biggest secrets in America are the laws that protect working people.  They don’t teach this in school and you’re certainly not going to learn about them from an employer. The ONLY way workers get educated about their rights is if they have a union. And knowing your rights is only half the challenge.  You then have to learn how to enforce them.

By Joe Maniscalco

Striking NewYork-Presbyterian hospital nurses decisively voted down a tentative deal with management last week that many insist the heads of the New York State Nurses Association [NYSNA] should never have tried to advance—and this weekend many on the picket line were still feeling burned by their own union. 

By Steve Wishnia 

One day after they rejected a proposed new contract by a 3–1 margin, nurses at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital were back on the picket line on both sides of the Washington Heights medical center Feb. 12.

By Bob Hennelly

Massive newsroom staff cuts by oligarch Jeff Bezos to his Washington Post as he seeks favor with the Trump junta, sets off more hand wringing about who killed journalism. Meanwhile, in broad daylight, at the instruction of President Trump, the GOP is trying to steal North Carolina's CD I, an historic Black district.

By Joe Maniscalco

Striking New York City nurses stormed over the Brooklyn Bridge on the 23rd day of their historic walkout last week convinced of the fight’s importance to the rest of American labor movement today, and generations of nurses to come.

This week, they are winding down that strike under a cloud of controversy with many objecting to what they see as a lack of transparency among the upper echelons of the New York State Nurses Association [NYSNA] and a “sellout contract” being forced down the throats of rank and file members.

By Bob Hennelly

On this episode of WBAI’s “What’s Going On?” we look at the aftermath of New York City’s historic deep freeze which so far has claimed the lives of at least 18 people.

By Joe Maniscalco

Safe starting ratios and protections against workplace violence remained top of mind for striking New York City nurses still holding down the line outside Mount Sinai West on 10th Avenue in Manhattan on Friday afternoon—even as at least some of them gave Mayor Zohran Mamdani a pass for endorsing hospital boss-ally Governor Kathy Hochul’s re-election bid. 

By Steve Wishnia

Fifteen months after they began talks for their first union contract, more than 900 professors at New York University will begin voting on whether to authorize a strike on Monday, Feb.

By Bob Hennelly

With the battle lines being drawn between municipal governments and the federal government over immigration, we take a closer look at rural America on this episode of We Decide: America at the Crossroads with Jenna Flanagan. It's been such a key component to the success of Trump's MAGA movement and given the GOP such an edge in the U.S. Senate, where rural states get the same pair of Senators as the most populous states.

By Joe Maniscalco

Fed up New York City home care workers ripped off to the tune of more than $25 million called on state Labor Department employees today to “defy” Governor Kathy Hochul and properly enforce existing labor law mandating restitution for wage theft victims. 

By Joe Maniscalco

New York City nurses marched into the fourth week of their historic strike Tuesday morning optimistic that they were finally close to a deal with management, but also roiling underneath the possible threat hospital bosses might “PATCO” the entire walkout and replace them all—permanently.

By Steve Wishnia

January 29 was a day of celebration for three large groups of New York City workers: security guards, app-cab drivers, and street vendors. The City Council, overwhelmingly overriding former mayor Eric Adams’ vetoes of 17 bills, passed measures with major new protections for them.

By Joe Maniscalco

“Any one of us can be Alex.”

Veterans Affairs ICU Nurse Alex Pretti’s final moment on earth before being shot to death by a heavily-armed mob of federal agents on the streets of Minneapolis on Jan. 24 was on the minds of many in New York City last night.

By Steve Wishnia

I wrote this article for the Alternet website in 2008. I’d known and been proud of my grandparents being immigrants since I was a kid, but I’d only recently learned about how my grandfathers arrived here. It was also the first in-depth piece I’d done on labor issues, which was the logical way to connect their stories to the present.

By Bob Hennelly

The murder by the US Border Patrol in Minneapolis of 37-year-old Alex Jeffrey Pretti, a Veterans Administration ICU nurse on Saturday continues to spark international outrage. Pretti, a member of the American Federation of Government Employees, was coming to the aid of a woman being pushed to the ground by the Border Patrol. Pretti was a licensed gun owner and had a permit to carry his gun which multiple videos show remained holstered until he was tackled and swarmed by federal agents who took his gun and shot Pretti multiple times.

By Eilean Faltin

Federal forces are marauding across American cities, widely despised billionaires are flagrantly committing omnicide, and 60-70 million full-time U.S. employees do not make a living wage.

For many younger people, the necessity and the urgency of mass revolutionary action could not be any clearer. Yet, U.S. union membership remains at an all-time low of 9.9%, raising the questions of whether or not a wider general strike like the one seen in Minneapolis last week can be organized without militant labor leadership.

By Joe Maniscalco

Working class New Yorkers incensed over the grisly murder of 37-year-old Veterans Affairs ICU nurse and trade unionist Alex Pretti on the streets of Minneapolis this past weekend are vowing to give Senate Democratic Caucus boss Chuck Schumer and other feckless Dems in Congress “hell” this week for their ongoing failure to confront out-of-control ICE agents.

Editor’s Note: An emergency protest was announced for Saturday, Jan. 24 at Union Square starting at 4 p.m. just prior to publication of this story after federal agents shot and killed another person in Minneapolis believed to be a US citizen.

By Steve Wishnia

With the damp chill of a looming blizzard blowing in from the south, hundreds of New Yorkers flowed up the subway stairs at Union Square on January 23 like a fountain of humans wearing purple SEIU gear or bearing red “NO ICE” signs.

By Joe Maniscalco

No one really knows what impact Friday’s “Day of Truth and Freedom” in Minnesota will have on the state and the rest of the nation when workers there put down their tools, students stay home from school, and everybody stops shopping.