‘Time to Seal the Deal,’ Struggling NYC Council Staffers Tell OLR
By Steve Wishnia
Ninety-six staffers in the City Council’s central office who joined the Association of Legislative Employees late last year are in negotiations demanding that they be added to the union’s contract covering about 500 other Council staff.
Listen: Today’s Global Crisis, Delaney Hall, and 9/11 Files
By Bob Hennelly
The Guardian is reporting this week that oil prices are spiking to over $107 a barrel as Iran aligned rebel Houthis in Yemen targeted Saudi Arabia's east west crude pipeline. As President Trump's war of choice in Iran has continued, the entire Mideast has been destabilized with oil at one point hitting $126 dollars a barrel.
Revolution Passed Down From Father to Son—And Now, to You
By Joe Maniscalco
From the time he was 12 until he was 21-years-old, Author John Hanson grew up hearing first-hand accounts about the 1934 Minneapolis general strike from his dad, an old-time Wobbly and member of IBT Local 574’s Committee of 100 tasked with guiding the historic worker uprising to ultimate victory.
Workers Charge Widespread Racism and Rampant Wage Theft Throughout NYC’s Home Care Industry
By Joe Maniscalco
Sixty-two-year-old Queens resident Marlene Urquhart spent seven years working round-the-clock shifts for a home care agency located on Ralph Avenue in Brooklyn called 1st Help HomeCare.
The mother of four quit in March 2025 alleging 1st Help Home Care and its owner Rita Cohen owed her more than $260,000 in unpaid wages following the death of Urquhart’s primary patient that same year.
District Council 37 Members Reject Weak Contracts and Stagnant Leadership
By Joe Maniscalco
What’s wrong with this picture?
Members of the largest and arguably most powerful public sector union in the City of New York can no longer afford to live in the city they serve—but the strongest opposition they face getting a contract they can live with this fall isn’t coming from the Office of Labor Relations [OLR].
It’s coming from their own union leadership.
University of California’s Institute for Memory Impairment Leads in Alzheimer’s Research
By Jessica Peralta
IRVINE, CA — UCI MIND’s laboratory has 15 freezers and five refrigerators. They are packed — but not with food.
About 1,200 brains are currently stored in those freezers and fridges.
Each sample represents a person who donated their brain to science with the hopes of helping future generations overcome neurological disorders like Alzheimer’s disease
25 Years After 9/11, NYC is Still Grappling With the Devastating Toll on Public Health
By Steve Wishnia
Twenty-five years have passesd since the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center, but the maladies caused by the resulting poisonous dust continue to linger, and the survivors are aging.
Zohran Mamdani Would Have a Lot of Explaining to Do to Mother Jones
By Joe Maniscalco
One-hundred-and-twenty-three summers have past since iconic workers’ rights activist Mary Harris “Mother” Jones led the March of the Mill Children from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to New York City and Long Island.
Labor Strikes Back Against Trump’s Assault on Federal Workers
By Steve Wishnia
Eight unions representing federal employees filed a lawsuit Aug. 24 challenging two rules recently imposed by the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), arguing that they would effectively eliminate the protections civil-service laws give workers against being fired without just cause.
Covenant House Facing Contempt Charges for Refusing to Bargain
By Steve Wishnia
The National Labor Relations Board is planning to ask federal courts to hold Covenant House in contempt for refusing to bargain in good faith with 1199SEIU after a judge issued an injunction ordering it to do so in September 2025.
Listen: The Absurdity of Pay Parity Foe Bob Linn Advising Mayor Mamdani
By Joe Maniscalco
Mayor Zohran Mamdani took office on Jan. 1 declaring a “new era” in New York City. But for FDNY EMS first-responders in crisis it seems a lot like the same old song and dance.
Work-Bites International: ‘The Tiger’ Arrives in Colombia!
By Eilean Faltin
Accused fascist Abelardo de la Espriella was sworn in as the new president of Colombia on Aug. 7 after claiming victory in a fiercely contested election. One day later, the U.S. government pledged $1 billion dollars in “security aid” to the South American nation, pending congressional approval.
Listen: Medicare, Medicaid Meltdown at NYC Hospitals; Retirees Lead Fight Against Privatization
By Bob Hennelly
Mount Sinai Health System is facing backlash this week after it stopped accepting some new patients enrolled in Medicaid, Medicare and other publicly subsidized insurance plans—a move the New York State Nurses Association says could further strain safety-net hospitals and deny care to some of New York’s most vulnerable patients.
Listen: Nukes in Harm’s Way? Plus ICE Kills and Tortures
By Bob Hennelly
In this episode of We Decide: America at the Crossroads we go to Ukraine to consider what's at risk for the world in a war zone where Russia has seized a Ukrainian nuclear power complex in a region with so many vulnerable atomic power plants.
Is the world just watching and waiting? Will we say if there's a Chernobyl-scale disaster that nobody saw it coming?
Artificial Intelligence: Just the Latest Way to Rip Off Recording Artists…
By Steve Wishnia
As artificial intelligence expands its share of recorded music, musicians need to establish their rights to “consent, compensation, and credit” when their work is used, an American Federation of Musicians spokesperson recently told Work-Bites.
Will Mayor Mamdani Rescue New York City EMTs and Paramedics?
By Joe Maniscalco
New York City is in contract negotiations with FDNY EMS unions, and if that sounds boring or hum-drum it’s only because City Hall wants it to appear that way. In reality, the talks represent a golden opportunity for the Mamdani administration to distinguish itself from preceding ones and do what previous mayors have spectacularly failed to do in the past—rescue FDNY EMS before it’s too late.
Reporter’s Notebook: As Protections End, Layoffs of Haitians Begin
By Steve Wishnia
One week after Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced that New York City was being “forced by federal law” to lay off Haitian-immigrant employees whose temporary protected status (TPS) was terminated July 27 when a June Supreme Court decision formally went into effect, it is difficult to find information about how that is playing out.
NYC Retirees Battle Back with New Bill to Protect Healthcare
By Joe Maniscalco
New York City Council Member Chris Marte [D-1st District] re-introduced legislation on Thursday aimed at blocking ongoing efforts to chip away at the healthcare coverage municipal retirees earned after decades on the job—and this time, he said, the bill will pass.
Planned Parenthood Calls Workers’ Cost of Living Demands ‘Selfish’
By Joe Maniscalco
Unionized workers hit the streets outside Planned Parenthood locations in Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx, and Long Island on Tuesday in search of living wage their employers are calling “selfish.”
Listen: NYC’s Largest Public Sector Union Has a Crisis of Democracy
By Joe Maniscalco
District Council 37 is the largest public sector union in the City of New York with more than 150,000 members in 62 locals covering over 1,000 job titles.
And in this town today, legislation often lives or dies on the word of the union’s Executive Director, Henry Garrido.
But ask the average rank and file DC37 member if they feel like they have a voice in what their union and its leader does with all that power—and they’ll say no, according to outspoken union delegate Cristina Rodriguez-Hart.