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.

By Bob Hennelly

This week’s action-packed broadcasts includes a visit with 1199 SEIU Executive VP Andy Cassagnol who talks about this week’s rally in support of the tens of thousands of essential healthcare workers who are here in the United States on Temporary Protective Status.  Last month, the US Supreme Court sided with the Trump administration and its plans to force over 300,000 Haitian and Syrian TPS holders out of the country.

New York City Mayor Zoharan Mamdani has since announced the termination of potentially thousands of city workers who had previously held Temporary Protective Status.

By Bob Hennelly

This week, scores of activists turned out on the steps of City Hall to support No More 24 hunger strikers pressing for a municipal ban on the practice of paying live-in caregivers just 13 hours pay.

By Bob Hennelly

The ongoing war in Iran and Lebanon that has killed thousands of civilians, struck closer to home this week with the combat death of 28 year-old Sgt. Angel Sarah Rampersad from Ozone Park, Queens who died when her base in Jordan came under an Iranian missile and drone attack.

By Bob Hennelly

On this episode of WBAI’s What’s Going On? we check in with our FDNY EMS unions about a new bill introduced by New York City Council Member Joann Ariola, who chairs the Council's Fire and Emergency Management Committee, to provide a $20,000 retention and recruitment bonus for FDNY EMTS and $25,000 payment to FDNY EMS paramedics.

By Bob Hennelly

According to New York City officials, the 37-story midtown high-rise at risk of collapsing last week has been stabilized.

The former Pfizer office tower was in the midst of being converted into luxury apartments when workmen discovered steel structural supports on the 21st floor bent in half under the weight of the upper floors.

By Joe Maniscalco

On this episode of Labor and Healthcare Confidential host Marianne Pizzitola talks with Work-Bites contributor Bob Hennelly about the creation of a special online portal to search soon-to-be-released 9/11 files related to the air toxicity emanating from Ground Zero following the terrorist attack on New York City in 2001.

By Bob Hennelly

Recent record-level heat saw temperatures approach 100 degrees with a "feels like" heat and humidity index approaching several degrees above that.

Throughout the heat emergency, scores of FDNY EMS ambulances sat idle, due to lack of staffing according to the FDNY EMS unions which noted call volumes exceeded 6,000 a day with some calls being held for a couple of hours.

By Bob Hennelly

At a City Hall steps press conference yesterday, New York City Council Speaker Julie Menin announced that the City Council's economists had calculated the city could anticipate an additional $2 billion in revenue from higher than previously expected tax revenue.

By Joe Maniscalco

Legendary union organizer and author Phil Cohen has seen a lot over his decades-long involvement in the American labor movement. But even Phil was shocked to learn during the latest Labor and Healthcare Confidential episode on WBAI that some of the most powerful labor leaders in New York State continue to try and undermine legislation blocking the diminishment of retiree healthcare.

By Bob Hennelly

This past weekend, Sen. Andy Kim (D-NJ) was denied access to detainees at Delaney Hall, he told reporters on Saturday. Kim told reporters that this was the first time that GEO, the private company that runs the site, had obstructed his ability to provide legally-required Congressional oversight.

By Jillian Jonas

Is NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s new housing plan and relevant budget allocations what we expected from a member of DSA? Why is a Democratic Socialist advocating privatization for NYCHA, especially after years of evidence it doesn't work, and the only true beneficiaries are members of the real estate class?

By Bob Hennelly

Newark Mayor Ras Baraka has announced a reset for the policing around Delaney Hall, the controversial private immigration prison operated by the GEO Group, a major donor to President Trump.

By Bob Hennelly

In this special edition of Caribbean Voices and Beyond with Issac Ferguson we look at the roughly 300 detainees at Delaney Hall in Newark, New Jersey who started a hunger strike and work stoppage last Friday night to protest inhumane conditions inside the privately-owned immigration prison operated by GEO, a major Trump donor.

By Bob Hennelly

This past week Mayor Mamdani delivered a master class in how to completely reset the annual municipal budget conversation while delivering a $124.7 billion budget that on paper zeroed out a $12 billion budget gap looming in no small part due to cynical under budgeting by the previous Adams administration.

By Bob Hennelly

Trump’s ongoing illegal war on Iran and increasing efforts at voter suppression here at home continue to spark resistance across the nation.

By Bob Hennelly

On this episode of Frontline Voices on WBAI, Samar Ali, a Research Professor of Political Science and Law at Vanderbilt University, talks about how last week’s landmark Supreme Court decision on Louisiana vs. Callais could reshape the political landscape in America.

By Bob Hennelly

On the latest episode of “What’s Going On” I speak with Dr. Joe Wilson and Larry Hamm, founder of the People's Organization for Progress, who recap May Day's dynamic American rebirth even as SCOTUS demolishes the 1965 Voting Rights Act and Louisiana delays a primary that was already underway.

By Bob Hennelly

President Trump's social media post of his likeness as a Christ-like figure bathed in a golden aura  attending to a sick man was strongly denounced  as idolatry by attendees at a Yale Divinity School conference this week that drew hundreds of public theologians from around the nation.

By Bob Hennelly

The US and Israeli war of choice continues to rage with devastating consequences with well over 2,500 deaths throughout the region, overwhelmingly mostly civilians including hundreds of children. Three weeks in and the UN Secretary Antonio Guterres was quoted as suggesting that both sides in the US-Israel war on Iran have likely already committed war crimes.