On Wednesday (January 20th), the day that Joe Biden was inaugurated as the 46th President of the United States, most of the Congressional top brass was there - about half of the Senate and a handful of House Members, including establishment stalwarts like Nancy Pelosi and Mitch McConnell, as well as Progressive icons like Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth more»

(NEW YORK CITY) - After a week of cold-night picketing warmed by oil-drum fires, Union-represented Workers at the Hunts Point Produce Market in the Bronx on Saturday (January 23rd) overwhelmingly ratified a contract that will increase their pay by about 10% over the next three years. The deal is the biggest raise Workers there have gotten within memory, more»

(NEW YORK CITY) – On Thursday (January 21st), Editorial Employees of The New Yorker Union began a 24-hour work stoppage to demand fair wages and an equitable salary structure and to protest Condé Nast and The New Yorker management’s ongoing failure to bargaining in good faith and their offensive and unacceptable response to the NewsGuild more»

Impeachment isn’t the only thing Donald Trump could face now that he has left office. Earlier this week, the National Board of the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) announced that it will hold a disciplinary hearing against the outgoing President, where he could face expulsion from the Actors’ more»

(NEW YORK CITY) - Six striking Union-represented Workers at the Hunts Point Produce Market in the Bronx were arrested for blocking traffic shortly after midnight on Tuesday (January 19th). Video posted online by Teamsters Joint Council 16 showed several dozen Police Officers, some wearing riot helmets, trotting towards a group of about 25 Picketers more»

(THE BRONX, NEW YORK) - Millions of New Yorkers rely on the Hunts Point Produce Market in the Bronx, which provides up to 60% of the city’s produce. Now, in the middle of a pandemic, and for the first time in decades, its Union-represented Workers voted to Strike over a wage dispute. About 150 Produce Handlers at the facility, represented by more»

(CHICAGO, ILLINOIS) - A new report says Collective Bargaining Agreements (CBAs) help create "robust" Middle Class careers and make significant contributions to local economies. The report was produced by the Illinois Economic Policy Institute (IEPI) and the Project for Middle Class Renewal at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The authors more»

(NEW YORK CITY) – The Hotel Trades Council (HTC) has finally succeeded in organizing the largest and oldest Non-Union hotel in New York City, the New York Marriott Marquis in Times Square. HTC won recognition as the Collective Bargaining Representative of the Workers in the Hotel’s Housekeeping Department. This victory marks the end of a more»

(NEW YORK CITY) - Many former and current Airport Workers, mostly Subcontracted Employees, started off the New Year with great news: Governor Andrew Cuomo finally signed the long-fought for Healthy Terminals Act into New York State Law. The measure will help provide current and future personnel with health care coverage. “I ‘thank’ more»

(NEW YORK CITY) - Even in these extraordinary times, with millions having lost their jobs and tens of thousands of businesses having closed since the Coronavirus Pandemic spread, losses in the Performing Arts and related sectors have been staggering. During the quarter ending in September, when the overall unemployment rate averaged 8.5% - 52% of Actors, more»

(NEW YORK CITY) - A month into the distribution of COVID-19 vaccines, the de Blasio and Cuomo administrations have yet to fully spell out which “Front Line Essential Workers” are next in line after Health Care Staff and nursing homes get the shots. That’s increased anxiety for many New Yorkers hailed as heroes of the Coronavirus Pandemic more»

(NEW YORK CITY) - A Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) plan to eliminate 20 station booths and 185 Station Attendant jobs will leave hundreds of subway hubs dangerously understaffed, the agency’s largest Union has charged in a new lawsuit. TWU Local 100 is suing the cash-strapped agency in Manhattan Supreme Court to stop it from going ahead more»

(NEW YORK CITY) - The Met Orchestra Musicians are taking issue with a decision that was made by the Metropolitan Opera’s to utilize European Musicians for its New Year’s Eve Gala in Germany. In the statement, the Union-represented Musicians noted they’ve been unpaid for 10 months and that the Met’s actions have been an more»

(NEW YORK CITY) – Now that the unprecedented year 2020 has come to an end, the New York City AFL-CIO Central Labor Council’s is taking the time to look back at all that the Labor Movement accomplished in the face of previously unimaginable obstacles. Throughout the Coronavirus Pandemic, the New York City Labor Movement stood with Essential more»

(NEW YORK CITY) - After two years in the trenches and a tense confrontation last year with their employer, Housing Works staffers across New York City have voted to unionize. The Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU) announced the non-profit’s Workers voted 88% to 12% to join the National Union, which represents 100,000 Workers across more»

(THE BRONX, NEW YORK) - The New York State Department of Labor has announced the Joint Apprenticeship and Training Committee for Bricklayers & Allied Craftworkers Local Union 1 will conduct a recruitment session from January 29th, 2021 through December 17th, 2021 (excluding July 2021 and August 2021) for 25 Bricklayer-Mason Apprentices, 25 Pointer, more»

The “jobs vs. environment” debate has raged on since the idea of a Green New Deal rose to national prominence in recent years. Despite being explicitly framed as a jobs program, the Right Wing continues to (sometimes successfully) wield the program as a weapon in the culture war, portraying it as kooky at best and Anti-Worker at worst. New more»

(QUEENS, NEW YORK) - Staff Attorneys and Social Workers employed at Queens Defenders (QD) have announced their intent to Go Union with the Association of Legal Aid Attorneys-United Auto Workers (ALAA-UAW) Local 2325 by filing an election petition with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). QD provides criminal defense and related services for indigent more»

(NEW YORK CITY) – The New York State Department of Labor (NYSDOL) has announced it will proceed with a scheduled increase in the minimum wage that was scheduled to take effect before the COVID-19 Pandemic started. The increases take effect on December 31st - on that day, the minimum wage on Long Island and Westchester County will jump a dollar to $14 more»

(NEW YORK, NEW YORK) - Future plc, the multi-platform media company, has ratified its first Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) with the Writers Guild of America/East (WGAE). The three-year contract will provide a third of the company’s lowest-paid Employees with a pay increase averaging $10,000. Future plc’s 53-Member Unit includes the more»

(NEW YORK CITY) - New York City has advanced legislation that would protect Fast Food Workers from being fired without due cause and allow those Workers to appeal their terminations if necessary, according to The New York Times. New York could become one of the first cities in the U.S. to protect jobs within such a large industry, The Times reported. "No more»

(NEW YORK CITY) - For the past three weeks, tens of thousands of Indian Farmers have blocked highways around New Delhi to demand the repeal of three laws enacted in September by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Government that deregulate the market for produce. On November 26th, in what might have been the largest single protest in world history, an more»

(NEW YORK CITY) – In a sharp reversal, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) Board has announced it will hold off on approving a budget that includes thousands of layoffs and draconian cuts to transit services, according to sources with knowledge of the decision, The New York Daily News reports. The agency last month proposed a 40% cut to more»

(LONG ISLAND, NEW YORK) – Last Spring, Long Island was a hotbed of COVID-19 and efforts to curtail the virus resulted in The Empire State eventually ranking fourth in the lowest infection rates nationwide, which helped many Suffolk County businesses keep the lights on. “A coalition of Labor, government and private business leaders sat together more»

(WILSONVILLE, OREGON) - Liz Sabin never thought she’d have to rely on her sister to take a sick day from work to care for Sabin’s children, who are 2 and 7 years old - but that’s where she’s at. Nine months into the Coronavirus Pandemic, Sabin - a Nurse at Coffee Creek Correctional Facility in Wilsonville, Oregon, and a member of more»

(NEW YORK CITY) - The 30-member Bargaining Unit at the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) ratified its first Collective Bargaining Agreement with the Writers Guild of America, East (WGAE). After a year of negotiations, CPJ agreed to a three-year agreement that includes significant gains. The deal comes after more than 600 Members of the WGAE working more»

(NEW YORK CITY) - The Metropolitan Opera said this week that it needs to slash its Workers’ long-term contracts by 30% to survive - a proposal rejected by the Union representing its Employees, a new report said. Because of the impasse, the Met added, it would lock out the few dozen Stagehands still working amid the pandemic at midnight Tuesday more»

(NEW YORK CITY) - Upton Sinclair, Author of The Jungle, said that his 1906 novel of Workers’ lives in the Chicago Stockyards had “aimed for the public’s heart, and by accident hit it in the stomach” - in other words, that readers were less appalled by reading about a father who lost an arm on the job than by the possibility that some more»

(NEW YORK CITY) - Over the last eight to 10 years, Non-Union contractors paying little more than minimum wage have made inroads into large-scale construction in Manhattan. Now, the #TakeItBack Campaign, consisting of a coalition of several Building Trades Union Locals, wants to turn that around. “Every job we go to, ‘it’s the same more»

(NEW YORK CITY) - Not long after the start of the COVID-19 Pandemic, LaborPress began publishing the first-person experiences of an Intensive Care Unit Nurse who is helping treat Coronavirus patients inside a New York City hospital that is largely serving impoverished Communities of Color. Now, those heart-wrenching and harrowing accounts from the front more»

(NEW YORK CITY) - Judy Sheridan-Gonzalez didn’t plan on becoming a Nurse, let alone the President of the New York State Nurses Association (NYSNA), but nonetheless she found herself working in a hospital like both of her parents and further learning the importance being a part of a Union. “Well, ‘I think I have a nursing personality, but more»

LaborPress.org Editor’s Note: Ben Kimmel is Member of the International Union of Operating Engineers (IUOE) Local 94, as well as a Mental Health First Aid Instructor, a Certified Recovery Coach, a Certified Professional Life Coach and Peer & Wellness Advocate. Eight months have moved by pretty quickly. At this point, New York has done its more»

(NEW YORK CITY) - In front of a towering cardboard cutout dubbed “Elena the Essential Worker” - a woman with long braids and an apron, flexing her biceps in a Rosie-the-Riveter pose - the One Fair Wage Coalition has launched a statewide campaign to end New York State’s Sub-Minimum Wage for Tipped Workers. Food Service Employees who more»

(NEW YORK CITY) - Nearly 50,000 ShopRite Grocery Workers in New Jersey, New York and Connecticut will receive Hazard Pay after the United Food & Commercial Workers International Union (UFCW) reached an agreement with the grocery chain. The UFCW, which represents 1.3 million Food and Retail Workers nationwide, announced the agreement with ShopRite, more»

(LONG ISLAND, NEW YORK) - A Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) Exec hired to slash thousands of jobs now has one of New York’s biggest Transit Union Leaders calling for his own ouster. Anthony Simon - who leads the Long Island Rail Road’s largest Union - sent a letter to MTA Chairman Pat Foye demanding he fire Anthony McCord (pictured more»

(HARLEM, NEW YORK) - The enormous Sendero Verde Affordable Housing Complex being built in East Harlem marked two milestones in the past week, reaching peak height on its initial two buildings and announcing a new deal to hire local residents as Construction Workers. The project's first phase, consisting of a 15-story and 10-story building, will include 361 more»

(NEW YORK CITY) - Actors' Equity Association has released its second-ever Diversity and Inclusion report, tracking the demographics of how its Members are hired for acting and stage management work, and how much they were paid from the years 2016 through 2019. In short, there has been modest improvement since the first study in 2017 - meaning that there more»

(MELVILLE, LONG ISLAND) - Members of Laborers Local 66 protested outside the former Newsday building in Melville last week after learning the new property owners, despite receiving generous tax breaks, will not be using local demolition services on the construction site. The Union believes Hartz Mountain Industries Incorporated, a New Jersey company, more»

(NEW YORK CITY) - The Union representing Employees of one of New York's largest hospital laundry and medical uniform companies launched a two-day strike earlier this week to protest what it maintains were "illegal threats of termination" by the company that are being investigated by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). The dispute with Unitex more»

(NEW YORK CITY) - Standing on circles chalked six feet apart, Members of Service Employees International Union (SEIU) 32BJ and supporters rallied at LaGuardia Airport on Tuesday (November 17th) to urge Governor Andrew Cuomo to sign a Bill that would require airport employers to subsidize Workers’ health insurance. The Bill, the Healthy Terminals Act, more»

(NEW YORK CITY) – New York City’s Sanitation Union has agreed to defer $27 million in pay and benefits over the next year to avoid looming layoffs caused by COVID-19 and its fiscal fallout. Mayor Bill de Blasio announced the agreement with the Uniformed Sanitationmen’s Association, noting the city has now secured a total of $722 million more»

(NEW YORK CITY) - Phil Cohen, a Veteran Union Organizer, was called out of retirement in 2017 by Workers United/Service Employees International Union (SEIU) to investigate and expose an illegal Union-Busting plot by Mohawk Industries at its North Carolina carpet mill. Cohen’s account of his fight to prove that management was behind an unlawful more»

(NEW YORK CITY) - Memesha Davis is a Brooklyn native, a mother of two and a Structural Ironworker - a job that she says has changed her life. “Prior to ironwork, I had every job that you could possibly think of: Customer service… retail… hostess - and nothing ever fulfilled what it is that I wanted to do, so I’ve always tried to more»

(NEW YORK CITY) - Communications Workers of America (CWA) Local 1180 has negotiated an agreement with the City of New York that will prevent the layoffs of Members through at least June 2021. Local 1180 President Gloria Middleton said the agreement will save the City $15.9 million by deferring payments to both the Union’s Active and Retiree Welfare more»

(NEW YORK CITY) - As the “saviors of democracy” who not only helped Democrat Joe Biden win the White House in key Battleground States but who are now also fully prepared to protect that victory from Republican President Donald Trump’s ongoing protestations - Essential Union Workers from across the country should have tremendous clout more»

(NEW YORK CITY) - The Billionaires’ Row building where a spinning crane knocked large chunks of metal and glass onto the street below just before the end of October is the tallest structure ever built in New York City with Non-Union Labor - and the accident was a sign that the developer was cutting corners, Laborers Union’s Cement and Concrete more»

California voters approved a ballot initiative that will lock App-based Transportation and Delivery Workers into Non-Union Independent-Contractor status on Election Day, but Florida voted to raise the state’s Minimum Wage to $15 an hour over the next six years - and Colorado passed a measure that will give Workers 12 to 16 weeks of Paid Family Leave. more»

(NEW YORK CITY) - As the Coronavirus continues to spread across the U.S., setting another daily record number of cases, a Strike looms at one of the Nation's biggest food distributors - which threatens to disrupt supplies to major grocery stores across the Tri-State Area. Warehouse Employees and Delivery Workers at United Natural Foods (UNF) say the more»

(NEW YORK CITY) - The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) started testing thousands of Workers per week, beginning this week, for COVID-19. Testing will take place at a rotating set of workplaces, including train and bus depots, as well as at medical assessment and occupational health services centers, officials said. “Our brave Front Line more»

LaborPress.org Editor’s Note: Lenore Friedlaender is Assistant to the President, 32BJ Service Employees International Union (SEIU) and leads the member representation work for Hudson Valley and Long Island. When President Donald Trump returned from the hospital and said: “Don’t be afraid of COVID. Don’t let it dominate your more»