NYC Mayor, Council Speaker Play Ping Pong with Retiree Medicare As National Threat Looms
By Joe Maniscalco
New York City Mayor Eric Adams may have announced his decision in June to abandon efforts to push 250,000 municipal retirees and their dependents into a profit-driven health insurance plan nobody wants—but ever since then, Hizzoner and City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams have been batting around the ultimate fate of retiree health care around like a ping-pong ball.
Listen: Trump Feeds Fat Cats While Working Class Gets hosed
By Bob Hennelly
Across the country and here in our region local and state governments are scrambling to assess the damage from the passage of President Trump's so-called "Big Beautiful" bill. The new budget bill strips 17 million Americans of their healthcare and shrinks the vital food stamp program—all to fund tax cuts for the wealthiest taxpayers and corporations while exponentially increasing spending to execute Trump's mass deportation program by making Immigration and Customs Enforcement the nation's largest law enforcement agency.
Listen: Frontline Voices Takes a Closer Look at Budget ‘Horror’ at Home, War & Barbarism Abroad
By Bob Hennelly
On this episode of WBAI’s Front Line Voices, host Rebecca Myles explores the impact Trump's so-called “Big Beautiful” tax bill will have on working families with Sarah Anderson from the Institute for Policies Studies. India Walton also discusses her unsuccessful run for Mayor of Buffalo as a democratic socialist and what it may portend for Assembly Member Zohran Mamdani’s run for New York City mayor.
Mamdani Supporters Want Him to ‘Meet the Movement’ — Will He?
By Joe Maniscalco
Zohran Mamdani won the Democratic Party mayoral primary with 56 percent of the vote in large part because younger New York City voters are sick and tired of the Democratic Party Machine and it’s fossilized goon squad of neoliberal freaks who’s sole purpose in life is to neuter working class power.
Listen: NYC’s EMS Crisis Deepens; Trump’s ‘Big Beautiful Death Bill’
By Bob Hennelly
On the latest episode of "What’s Going On?” Vinnie Variale, president of DC 37 Local 3621—the FDNY EMS officers union—talks about Mayor Eric Adams’ handling of NYC’s deepening EMS crisis where response times have risen in excess of ten minutes for the most serious life threatening situations as calls volumes continue to surge.
American Desaparecidos: Trump’s War on Immigrants
By Steve Wishnia
More than 100 days after he was abducted from Maryland by ICE agents and shipped to El Salvador’s notorious CECOT prison, Kilmar Abrego Garcia is still in jail. After nearly three months of using lies and stalling to evade court orders for his release, the Trump junta brought him back to face highly questionable federal charges of human trafficking.
Anti-War Protesters in Times Square: ‘We Have to Dramatically Expand This Movement’
By Joe Maniscalco
War has never been good for working class people anywhere in the world and it isn’t good for working class people anywhere in the world now.
Roughly two hundred people assembled in Times Square this past Sunday afternoon for an emergency street action challenging the Trump administration’s unconstitutional bombing of Iran over the weekend. Similar emergency demonstrations were also held in dozens of places around the United States.
NYC Health-Care Workers Mobilize Against Massive Medicaid Cuts
By Steve Wishnia
“Medicaid!” “Saves lives!” health-care workers chanted in call-and- response outside New York-Presbyterian Hospital in Washington Heights June 23. The overhead passageway between two buildings provided a bit of shade but no protection from the 93-degree heat. “Keep the hospitals open,” called out a woman with “Healthcare Hero” on the back of her shirt.
Listen: Retirees Win in NYC; Brennan and Bhalla Win in NJ; and Zohran Strikes a Chord with the Rank & File
By Bob Hennelly
On this episode of “What’s Going On?’ we talk more about the big victory New York City municipal retirees have won in the fight against Medicare Advantage with New York City Organization of Public Services Retirees Marianne Pizzitola.
NYC Retirees Vow to Keep ‘Hounding’ Council Members to Pass Intro. 1096
By Joe Maniscalco
Despite Mayor Adams announcement on Friday that he is abandoning the Medicare Advantage push, New York City municipal retirees will continue to “hound” uncommitted City Council members until they finally sign onto legislation protecting the Traditional Medicare and MediGap benefits they earned on the job.
NYC Taxi Union Calls for Law to Stop Unfair Firings, as Uber Pours Money Into Council Races
By Steve Wishnia
Uber and Lyft drivers rallied outside the gates of City Hall June 18, calling on the City Council to pass a bill that would prohibit app-based cab companies from “deactivating” them—cutting off their access to the app—without just cause, and set up a city-run procedure for them to defend themselves before they get sacked.
NYC Mayor Eric Adams Abandons Medicare Advantage Push!
By Joe Maniscalco
New York City Mayor Eric Adams announced today that his administration is abandoning the Medicare Advantage push—at least for now.
“We’re announcing that we're not moving forward with the Medicare Advantage plan, specifically because the mayor, over many months, has heard from retirees that they're worried about whether it'll be affordable for them,” Spokesperson Liz Garcia told Work-Bites on Friday.
Walmart Workers Are Pressuring CEO Doug McMillon to Stand Up to Trump’s DEI Rollback
By Joe Maniscalco
Walmart, the largest employer of women and people of color in the nation didn’t exactly have a stellar track record on racial equity before the family-controlled operation decided to roll back its Diversity, Equity, Inclusion programs in the wake of the Trump administration’s DEI vendetta.
‘You Get Cooked Like a Microwave’: OSHA Considers Heat-Safety Rules—But Trump Team Is Opposed
By Steve Wishnia
“I’m somewhat surprised to see this hearing kept on the schedule,” Marc Freedman of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce told an Occupational Safety and Health Administration panel June 16, the first day of two weeks of hearings on federal heat-safety rules proposed by the Biden administration last year. President Donald Trump suspended consideration of all pending regulations in an executive order Jan. 20.
Say What? NYS Court of Appeals Rules Retirees Fighting Medicare Advantage ‘Failed to Establish the Existence of a Clear and Unambiguous Promise’
By Joe Maniscalco
“Oh, you silly civil servants…your big mistake was believing what you were reading and what you were told throughout your whole career working for the City of New York—thanks, though, for helping out during 9/11, Hurricane Sandy, Covid, and all the rest of it. You’re the best, God bless!
Listen: 1K Health Care Workers on the Chopping Block; Vinny Alvarez Leaves NYCLC Presidency
By Bob Hennelly
On this episode of “What’s Going On?” we talk with New York City Central Labor Council President Vincent Alvarez to discuss his retirement and the status of the American labor movement as he turns the page. Alvarez helped to restore the image of the CLC after it was rocked by a massive corruption scandal before he was elected its first full-time president in 2011.
The Real Problem with Zohran Mamdani’s ‘Far-Left’ Mayoral Candidacy
By Joe Maniscalco
“We deserve a mayor who will meet this moment,” Assembly Member and mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani [D-36th District] told supporters ahead of New York City’s massive “No Kings” march down 5th Avenue on Saturday.