By Joe Maniscalco

Last year, State Senator Pete Harckham stood alongside municipal retirees and surviving 9/11 spouses in Albany, urging passage of a statewide bill protecting them from ongoing efforts to strip their traditional Medicare coverage and force them into a profit-driven Medicare Advantage plan.

By Steve Wishnia

New York State has been rebating billions of dollars in stock-sales taxes to Wall Street for more than 40 years—and legislators and activists are making another try to change that.

By Joe Maniscalco

New York City municipal retirees looking for a trusted ally in City Hall after current Mayor Eric Adams became hellbent on the Medicare Advantage push exited this past week’s mayoral forum at the CUNY Graduate Center generally feeling enthusiastic about the mixed field of candidates vying for their votes.

By Joe Maniscalco

Elderly retail worker Thea Kindos stood out from the tens of  thousands of other protesters who marched down 5th Avenue in New York City on Saturday afternoon to denounce the Trump administration and what many fear is his all-out assault on whatever might be left of American democracy.

By Bob Hennelly

From noon until 3 p.m. today [Sat. April 5] WBAI's producers and public affairs team will bring you LIVE rolling coverage of the labor and social justice protests scheduled for New York City and Washington D.C. against the Trump/Musk junta's assault on workers' rights and the U.S. Constitution. 

By Steve Wishnia

Chanting “No more backroom deals,” about 100 people, mostly current and retired city workers, protested March 27 against a state-budget proposal that would delay fully funding pensions for almost 600,000 people until 2045.

By Joe Maniscalco

District Council 37 Executive Director Henry Garrido continues to scare the bejesus out of the New York City Council.

In 2023, the head of the largest public sector union in town threatened to “withdraw support…money…endorsements—everything” from any New York City Council member blocking his attempts to help Mayor Eric Adams push the city’s 250,000 municipal retirees into a profit-driven Medicare Advantage health insurance plan.

And he hasn’t let up since.

By Joe Maniscalco

Municipal workers—both active and retired—are being urged to rally outside New York State Governor Kathy Hochul’s Third Avenue offices on Thursday, March 27, to protest a new money-saving scheme many fear could blow holes in their pensions.

By Steve Wishnia

Last weekend, I read my 5-year-old granddaughter Brave Girl: Clara and the Shirtwaist Makers’ Strike of 1909, Michelle Markel’s children’s book about Clara Lemlich, the young woman who helped lead the “uprising of the 20,000”—the 1909-10 strike by women garment workers in New York.

By Joe Maniscalco

On Saturday March 15, scores of trade unionists, retirees, laid off workers, and their families took to the streets of NYC to march against the Trump administration's draconian cuts to the federal workforce. Here’s what the scene looked like on Broadway…

By Joe Maniscaclo

On Wednesday, March 12, New York City home attendants forced to work round-the-clock shifts, while being paid for roughly half the time, attempted to deliver a letter to Governor Kathy Hochul calling out her role in perpetuating "violence against women." Building security outside the governor's Third Avenue offices refused to accept their letter. This is what the scene looked like:

By Joe Maniscalco

New York City home care workers hoping on Wednesday afternoon to deliver a direct appeal to Governor Kathy Hochul to declare round-the-clock work in the industry as “violence against women” were instead told to take their letter and walk it over to the nearest Post Office.

By Joe Maniscalco

New York City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams launched her mayoral campaign over the weekend hoping to distinguish herself from that other Adams already in office.

By Joe Maniscalco

The Chinese-American Planning Council, the highly influential social services organization at the heart of NYC’s battle to end round-the-clock shifts in the home care industry, may insist those slavish 24-hour shifts are unfair to workers—at least 80 home attendants working for its subsidiary are still doing them.

By Steve Wishnia

Contract talks at Kaleida Health, the largest health-care provider in Western New York, began March 4. The almost 8,000 workers involved are seeking “improved staffing levels and added safety protections in the workplace,” according to the two unions representing them, 1199SEIU and Communications Workers of America Local 1168.

By Joe Maniscalco

None of the six candidates trying hard to succeed Mayor Eric Adams at last night’s nearly 2-hour mayoral forum at DC37 stood up for New York City municipal retirees fighting back against the Medicare Advantage push—save one.

By Joe Maniscalco

Pending New York City Council legislation aimed at stopping embattled Mayor Eric Adams from stripping municipal retirees of their Traditional Medicare health insurance benefits recently picked up added traction and three new cosponsors.

By Joe Maniscalco

Maybe they thought nobody was watching? 

A year after seizing control of the DC37 Retirees Association and suspending officers opposed to the ongoing Medicare Advantage push in NYC, the American Federation of State, County, & Municipal Employees—under the auspices of Administrator Ann Widger—has begun pumping out letters declaring the Retirees Association’s sudden and miraculous opposition to legislation aimed at protecting Traditional Medicare benefits.    

By Joe Maniscalco

It was déjà vu all over again this week in NYC when the head of the Municipal Labor Committee [MLC] once more fired off another letter to City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams warning her that legislative efforts to protect the Traditional Medicare benefits of 250,000 municipal retirees “should not be permitted to proceed.”

By Ryn Gargulinski

Greed. Lies. Betrayal. Rage. While these sound like great ingredients for a soap opera or action thriller, they are less than ideal for real life. Yet they are the key components in the real-life fight New York City retirees are waging against being shuttled into the aptly nicknamed Medicare Dis-Advantage Plan.