Unions See Hochul’s Reversal on Congestion Pricing As a Big Win for New Yorkers
By Bob Hennelly
Did the elites just not get who actually runs New York City?
In a surprise reversal, New York State Governor Kathy Hochul has put the brakes on the MTA’s congestion pricing plan just a few weeks before it was scheduled to start on June 30. The announcement was made via a video announcement.
‘Help…I am Trapped in Medicare (Dis)Advantage’
By Jenn Coffey
My name is Jenn and I am from Manchester, New Hampshire. At one time, I was a fully functioning EMT and holding down multiple jobs at once, one of which was as a State Representative.
I was a Republican and the Vice-Chair of Commerce and Consumer Affairs. For twenty years of my life, I served my community as a medical tech in the hospital, and as an EMT in the field.
I thought we could “fix” healthcare.
Listen: Poverty Exists Because We Allow it to Exist
By Bob Hennelly
On this episode of the Moral Monday Labor Radio Hour with Rev. Dr. William Barber & Bob Hennelly, we’re counting down to the June 29th “Mass Poor People’s & Low-Wage Workers’ Assembly & Moral March on Washington D.C. and to the Polls.” We hear from AFL-CIO Secretary Treasurer Fred Redmond about the national union’s commitment to support the march.
Did 32BJ Just Dodge a Bullet After Aetna Deal Collapses in NYC?
By Bob Hennelly
In America, healthcare delivery to patients and hospital finance are strategically compartmentalized to limit transparency. This is done to keep the consumer in the dark about pricing before services are rendered—all so that providers and profit-driven insurers can make a killing.
Donald Trump Should Go to Prison
By Steve Wishnia
Donald Trump should go to prison.
Much of the punditry following his conviction on 34 Class E felony charges on May 30 quoted supposed “experts” saying he’s unlikely to get jail time, as he’s 77 years old, a first offender, and E felonies are the least serious felonies in the New York State penal code. Oh, and it might be politically divisive.
The Monopoly Jeopardizing Your Safety…
By Steve Wishnia
Randy Fannon, vice president for safety at the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen, says in his 37 years working for railroads, the “most drastic” changes have come in the last five years.
Listen: NJ’s Largest Nurses’ Union Okays Strike!
By Bob Hennelly
At a press conference this week HPAE, New Jersey’s largest nurses’ union, announced today an overwhelming strike vote approvals at three large New Jersey Hospitals.
‘An Industry on the Brink of Disaster’
By Steve Wisnia
On May 23, the Justice Department and the Environmental Protection Agency announced a proposed settlement in which the Norfolk Southern railroad would pay more than $310 million to cover remediation costs from the February 2023 train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio. The town of 4,800 people had to be partially evacuated after about 50 cars on a 9,300-foot train derailed, including five carrying vinyl chloride, and some caught fire. The highly toxic gas, used in plastic manufacturing, had to be released and burned to avert an explosion.
Listen: Memorial Day with EMS Workers Sacrificing All!
By Bob Hennelly
Today is a national holiday, and on this episode of the Moral Monday Labor Radio Hour with Rev. Dr. William Barber & Bob Hennelly, we’re talking about the hundreds of thousands of EMTs and paramedics working hard to save lives and deliver health care to tens of millions of Americans who do not have regular access to a doctor.
Phil Cohen War Stories: The Strike Vote
By Phil Cohen
The art of defeating hostile employers involves attacking on multiple fronts simultaneously, in ways they least expect, until executives come to feel like medieval lords trapped in a castle, surrounded by Vikings at every gate.
The Answer to Workplace Retaliation…
By Bill Barry
Courtesy of Emergency Workplace Organizing Committee
It happens all the time: a supervisor suddenly approaches one of your best organizing committee members, screams a lot of false accusations about bad work, bad attendance, or bad attitude at them, and then tells them that they are fired.
EMS is a Meat Grinder That Needs Emergency Aid
By Bob Hennelly
Courtesy of InsiderNJ
It was more than a year ago that President Joe Biden declared the national emergency sparked by the Covid mass death event over—but here in New Jersey, and throughout the nation, our local Emergency Management Services find themselves in a deepening crisis as professionals leave this vital profession.
NYC Council Speaker Seeks ‘Closure’ on Medicare Advantage Fight
By Joe Maniscalco
New York City Mayor Eric Adams may believe the highest court in the state will still let him push 250,000 municipal retirees into a profit-driven Aetna Medicare Advantage health insurance plan if he asks the judges nicely enough, but City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams says it’s time for “closure.”
Phil Cohen War Stories: The Siege
By Phil Cohen
I received a call from Mill Chair Clara Moser the next morning at 8 am. She frantically told me security guards had been stationed at the plant entrance to prevent me from entering. Management claimed to have video showing me kicking a hole in the wall as I exited on Thursday.
Are These Guys Crazy!?! Adams Keeps Pushing Medicare Advantage in NYC Despite Latest Court Defeat
By Joe Maniscalco
The City of New York’s decision to keep trying to push 250,000 municipal retirees into a profit-driven Medicare Advantage health insurance plan following yet another crushing court defeat on Tuesday has convinced many in the fight that Mayor Eric Adams and his privatization allies must be crazy.
Listen: Labor’s Role in the 2024 Election/Mayor Adams Cuts Hundreds of NYC Jobs
By Bob Hennelly
We are in Philadelphia for this week’s edition of the Stuck Nation Labor Radio Hour covering the Service Employees International Union’s national convention. Yesterday, delegates elected April Verrett, the first Black president of the almost 2 million member union.
Listen: Labor Needs a 50 State Organizing Strategy
By Bob Hennelly
On this episode of the Moral Monday Labor Radio Hour with Rev. Dr. William Barber and Bob Hennelly, we are live from SEIU Convention in Philadelphia talking with George Gresham, president of 1199SEIU, America’s largest healthcare union, about his union’s deep ties to the civil rights movement and how it’s continued to grow even in the south which has historically resistant to the union moment.
Fain Defiant After GOP Governors’ Plot to Defeat Alabama Union Drive
By Bob Hennelly
The UAW’s winning streak, including a lopsided union recognition vote last month at a Volkswagen plant in “right-to-work” state Tennessee, came to an end at a Mercedes plant in Alabama thanks to a flagrantly illegal counter-campaign led by plant management and backed up by a powerful coalition of southern Republican Governors.
Phil Cohen War Stories: The Textile Cowboys
By Phil Cohen
In 1976 the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America and the Textile Workers Union of America merged to form the Amalgamated Clothing and Textile Workers Union. It was a marriage of convenience, rooted in necessity, between very disparate cultures.
Listen: Trump Fascism on the March; Workers in Peril; and More!
By Bob Hennelly
Last weekend, former President Donald Trump held a rally in Wildwood, New Jersey where his racist anti-immigrant messaging appears to have drawn thousands. While the Associated Press reported tens of thousands attended, other reliable outlets have put the actual crowd size as much smaller.