Even if you don’t know what “just cause” means, if you are in a union, you likely benefit from it every day you are on the job. It’s a shield against all sorts of management abuse and even the sort of routinized harassment that so many supervisors...
The bureaucracy leading the NYC Department of Correction appears to be a comedy of errors, but nobody’s laughing. Rather, like a 16th-century tragic play the agency has experienced a catastrophic downfall over the last 11 years. It has been...
Are you a legacy Democrat, Democratic Socialist, Republican, libertarian, Marxist, progressive, conservative, fascist, all or none or a combination of them? Where do you fit in? Do you occupy an ideological niche? Are you mainline, a...
The author writes in regard to the proposed sharing of municipal worker pharmacy data with insurance companies as discussed in a Sept. 11 article in the The Chief: "Union calls out MLC for 'veiled threat' over worker health data sharing." The vast...
I detest much, though not all, of what Mayor Zohran Mamdani stands for. His philosophy's bedrock is an obstacle to trust. But if he sticks with his "tax the rich" plans, provided wealth is fairly judged and defined, my loathing may be...
Disillusionment with corporate America doesn't have to be a terminal disease after all. Within its structure, there may be maverick human hearts with the moral mischief and wherewithal to break through the walls of profit-seeking absolutism and...
Mayor Mamdani, you know I am rooting for you to succeed in all ways. Your success creates a better, more equitable New York. Our success then sends signals to the rest of the country about what democratic socialism means in practice. You’re doing well on your affordability agenda – rent freeze, the start of childcare expansion... But to do more, you have to do better by New York City public employees...
The Brad H v. City of New York lawsuit, known as “Brad H”, was a class action suit that challenged NYC’s practice of discharging individuals with mental health concerns from city jails without any psychiatric medication or treatment referrals. The...
When riches arise from humble beginnings, it may be the just reward for raw ambition and competitiveness, or fortuitous or random luck. The face value of phenomenal success is sufficient to impress most people without their inquiring further into...
Elections are won by who shows up to vote on Election Day and in New York, a lot of attention has been paid to the wins of ‘insurgent/left’ candidates over the Democratic ‘establishment’. The wins are undeniable and significant, even if they are...
For scientists in the United States, the past two years have been bleak. Federal attacks on research funding have destabilized laboratories, threatened careers, and cast uncertainty over the future of American science. But in New York, there is finally reason for optimism...
The waiting room was brightly lit with cheery wall motifs, decorations and knickknacks on the tables to relax patients awaiting their consultations with doctors specializing in life-limiting illnesses. Before technology-phobic patients could...
It has been a topsy-turvy summer in electoral politics for the labor-left in New York City. New York City’s Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) won big. Eight of nine of their endorsed insurgent candidates for the state office won. Even more...
"Nothing succeeds (or succumbs) like success." Consider the '311' system, which is hyper-touted by the city as a splendid innovation and triumph of futuristic efficiency. Its "success" shrinks away under scrutiny...
Sixty years ago this month, Martin Luther King Jr. began the Chicago Freedom Movement, marking a real shift in the nature of his work. Starting with the Montgomery bus boycott in 1955 and ending with Selma in 1965, King had worked primarily to win...
To end the NYC jail crisis, newly appointed remediation manager Nick Deml must take swift and bold action to regain control of Rikers Island jails and establish order, or the Department of Correction will remain locked in a cycle of lawlessness,...
No, it is not necessarily, though it might be, bias against immigrants, Somalis, people of color and combative social justice lobbyists, to want to get to the bottom of allegations, wherever they lead, regarding the apocryphal giant fraud in...
This essay isn't about the large group of hardworking NYC Department of Education paraprofessionals who assist classroom teachers, enrich the lives of NYC pupils of differing physical and mental abilities, and help them to...
During the Second World War, German teenagers conscripted to do espionage behind enemy lines while in civilian clothes were, pursuant to international law which does not confer protected prisoner of war status under such conditions, duly executed...
There was a time when I would proudly tell people to apply to FDNY EMS. I’d tell them about the privilege of serving New York City. I’d tell them about the camaraderie, the purpose, and the indescribable feeling of helping another human being on...
When former colonial empires, repressive nations, genocidal regimes or even ecclesiastic "top management" apologize for their historical transgressions, what does it matter? Does it mean anything? Is it more than a calculated public relations gesture to tidy up their historical record? Above, the late Pope Francis wears a traditional headdress he was given during a ceremony in Alberta, after his apology to Indigenous people for the decades of abuses and cultural destruction they suffered at Catholic Church-run residential schools.
It’s not unusual to hear a president of Transport Workers Union Local 100, which represents nearly all subway and bus workers, and whose contract has been expired since May 15, say his union is at war with the Metropolitan Transportation...
As long as Department of Correction Commissioner Stanley Richards surrenders to the judicial hegemony of federal monitor Steve Martin, Richards will remain in favor. Even when jail violence and death prevail Martin will praise a capitulating...
As our nation marks its 250th anniversary, we rightfully celebrate our survival. More importantly, however, we must confront the ongoing struggle to build a "more perfect union" for the future. Our country now is governed by a Make America Great Again movement...
Most of my self-described "communist" friends, one of them a proud former Bolshevik Ball debutante, re-energize the batteries of their social justice mission from the vantage point of the luxurious battlements of their amenity-fortified primary...