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 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 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

The ongoing nurses strike may be the largest in New York City history, but there’s nothing unprecedented about the way the hospital bosses at Mount Sinai, New York-Presbyterian, and Montefiore are responding to their unionized workforce’s essential demands.

By Bob Hennelly

Here in New York City, thousands of nurses with the New York State Nurses Association remain on strike at New York Presbyterian, Mount Sinai, and Mount Sinai Morningside and West to maintain their healthcare benefits, safe staffing for patient care as well as secure improved protections against a spike in workplace violence.

By Steve Wishnia

With the impending expiration of a stipulation that the New York City Housing Authority won’t begin demolishing two Chelsea public-housing developments, another tenant challenge to the plan is wending its way through the courts.

By Steve Wishnia

The hundreds of striking nurses picketing outside NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital January 12 were loud. Their chants, cheers, and shouts resounded under the three-level bridgeway connecting the hospital’s buildings. But they weren’t talking about money.

By Joe Maniscalco

Sunday’s massive march south on 5th Avenue in response to the ICE execution of 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good in Minneapolis took protesters right past Trump Tower and provided many with the opportunity to express their anger and disgust towards the current administration in patented NYC style.

By Joe Maniscalco

New York State Governor Kathy Hochul continues to block resumption of a sweeping wage theft probe into the home care industry this week despite a new ruling in favor of home care workers demanding action.

By Steve Wishnia

Compelled by a snuff-video clip that went viral on social media on the afternoon of January 7, several hundred people converged on Foley Square that evening for an emergency rally to protest the killing depicted in said video: An Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent shooting 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good in Minneapolis that morning.

“I’m outraged. I didn’t know what to do. I came after work,”said John Grauwiler, a teacher from Astoria.

By Joe Maniscalco

Tristan Castillo’s job as an Emergency Room nurse is unquestionably more stressful than whatever the heads of Mount Sinai, NewYork-Presbyterian, and Montefiore private hospital chains do all day long. Unlike those lavishly-paid executives, however, Castillo goes to bed at night worrying about making ends meet and if being short-staffed meant the welfare of a patient was put at risk during her last shift. 

By Joe Maniscalco

“Beginning today we will govern expansively and audaciously,” New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani pledged during his inauguration speech on Jan. 1.

So, why is he continuing to run away from the New York State Stock Transfer Tax and letting Lt. Governor Antonio Delgado show what audacity really looks like?

By Steve Wishnia

New York City Councilmembers are mulling over how to override former mayor Eric Adams’ vetoes of 19 bills on his last day in office December 31. They included legislation to prohibit app-cab companies from firing drivers without good cause; to set a minimum wage for security guards; and to increase the number of licenses given to street vendors.

By Joe Maniscalco

It looks like the New York City Municipal Labor Committee [MLC] is starting to leak like a sieve and that’s a great thing for everybody who’s spent the last four years demanding true transparency and real participatory democracy out of the group.

By Bob Hennelly

In less than a week Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani becomes Mayor Mamdani as the Trump administration doubles down on its lethal mass deportation strategy using masked federal agents to tear apart  families and communities all in pursuit of a whiter nation. 

By Steve Wishnia

In a flurry of votes on the last day of its session, the City Council on Dec. 18 passed long-sought legislation setting minimum wages and benefits for security guards and prohibiting app-cab companies and delivery apps from firing workers without good cause. However, absent from the more than 40 measures approved were bills that would have guaranteed retired city workers traditional Medicare and outlawed unpaid 24-hour shifts for home health attendants.