Dear union leaders: When I gave my in-person testimony to the City Council on January 9th of this year I stayed to the very end of the hearing and listened to what everyone had to say. What especially …
"Give us 18 minutes. We'll give you the end of your lives"If the owners of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory had a podcast back in 1911, that might have been their bumper intro. They could have sold …
The horrific Norfolk Southern train wreck in East Palestine, Ohio, last month is just the latest of a long line of recent train disasters. The chemical fireball poisoned the city and sickened …
Around 20 years ago, when a public school principalship first became an entry-level position under New York City's then-Mayor Michael Bloomberg, I recall being present at the time clock and …
"Double double, toil and trouble. Fire burn and cauldron bubble.” East Palestine, Ohio, site of the toxic hell triggered by the train derailment and human malfeasance, is channeling Shakespeare's …
No matter how or when the horrific war in Ukraine ends, one thing is certain: the working class will lose. Before 2022, foreign creditors and Ukrainian elites were already attempting to gut labor …
Is the value of workers' productivity greater in their employers' eyes if the labor was achieved while the workers were needlessly inconvenienced? Does it detract from workers' high standard of …
I have been a gig worker for almost two decades.You might be wondering how a professor could be a gig worker. After all, isn’t a gig worker someone who is employed through an app?Yes and no.Because …
The National Labor Relations Board recently expanded and strengthened the penalties on employers who illegally demote or terminate employees for their union activity. The trick is, of course, in the …
Labor unions are the main reason that deaths in workplaces have been reduced. They are the reason that safety precautions exist and are enforced at all, though far from universally. Every workplace …
If you are wondering what kind of union you belong to, longtime labor lawyer Joe Burns has some pointers in his new book, “Class Struggle Unionism.”You may be in what he calls a business union if …
After trying to wrest a gun and deflecting the bullet trajectory away from her classroom of kids, a kindergarten teacher in Virginia was shot in the chest and nearly killed two weeks ago. Her first …
Looking at the two major parties, I wonder if the Republicans’ function is to be so horrible that they make awful Democrats look good. This serves the purpose of America's multi-billionaire class, …
A year ago, Louis Molina came to the New York City Department of Correction as the commissioner and friend of the correction unions. In published letters to The Chief, I celebrated Molina’s …
Remember that historic photo, one of the most popular postcard keepsakes for tourists, of the laborers snacking on a narrow girder suspended high in the air, seemingly above the clouds, during the …
About midway through Monday’s City Council hearing on Mayor Eric Adams’s demand that a Medicare Advantage plan become the only no-premium healthcare option for municipal retirees, Council Member …
Dear Council Speaker Adrienne Adams,In recent emails with your office I was told that you were looking forward to listening to the debate about whether or not to amend Administrative Code 12-126, …
Which is easier to figure out: the reason that pigeons are incapable of walking without bobbing their heads, or ingenious and devious ways that employers will devise to circumvent and weasel out of …
The New York State legislature, in order to demonstrate to the commonplace citizenry that despite being special, they too are ordinary people equipped with the routine human vices of greed, envy and …
Although my union proudly calls itself a “member led union,” it is extremely undemocratic in several ways.We do not have “one member, one vote” for the leadership. This means a new caucus …
Almost twice on average each month this year, a Rikers Island detainee has died by suicide or under mysterious circumstances that are sometimes suggestive of official neglect, avoidable accident or …
During the six years I lived in the Netherlands I learned that every worker, whether working in a service or professional job, had four weeks of paid vacation and a 36-hour workweek. If they worked …
The MTA will dig deep into the pockets of its customers in order to excavate and rifle the vestiges of the tax base's bank accounts. They will divert and seize our collective non-discretionary …
A recent Chief article, “CUNY professors’ PSC claim dismissed; First Amendment suit followed union’s ‘Palestine’ resolution” (Dec. 9) reports on the dismissal of a lawsuit brought by six …
The right to die by hypothermia is constitutionally guaranteed and may not be abridged, questioned or sabotaged by intervention, regardless of motive.It is an alienable assertion of personal dignity, …