Work-Bites

By Bob Hennelly In this episode of We Decide: America at the Crossroads we go to Ukraine to consider what's at risk for the world in a war zone where Russia has seized a Ukrainian nuclear power complex in a region with so many vulnerable atomic power plants. Is the world just watching and waiting? Will we say if there's a Chernobyl-scale disaster that nobody saw it coming?

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Optics and the public’s lingering misconceptions about what EMTs and paramedics actually do on a daily basis play a significant role in the ongoing disparity, according to Elkadi. Shootouts and explosions play out on the public stage in dramatic fashion— much more so than the unfortunate office worker who suffers a cardiac arrest at their desk. “We’re not working on the patient in the middle of the street unless we have to,” Elkadi said.

Editor’s Note: Harry Weiner is New York City Municipal retiree who spent years working for the New York City Housing Authority [NYCHA]. He remains an active part of both the Council of Municipal Retiree Organizations [COMRO] and the New York City Organization of Public Service Retirees.

By Joe Maniscalco New York City is in contract negotiations with FDNY EMS unions, and if that sounds boring or hum-drum it’s only because City Hall wants it to appear that way. In reality, the talks represent a golden opportunity for the Mamdani administration to distinguish itself from preceding ones and do what previous mayors have spectacularly failed to do in the past—rescue FDNY EMS before it’s too late.

By Joe Maniscalco New York City is in contract negotiations with FDNY EMS unions, and if that sounds boring or hum-drum it’s only because City Hall wants it to appear that way. In reality, the talks represent a golden opportunity for the Mamdani administration to distinguish itself from preceding ones and do what previous mayors have spectacularly failed to do in the past—rescue FDNY EMS before it’s too late.

“They can no longer say that our lawyers didn’t have an opportunity to look at every single word to make sure it was right or not. All those false narratives they’ve used in the past two years against us—they can no longer be used today,” he said. Intro. 1096 largely failed to pass because District 37 Executive Director Henry Garrido, head of the largest public sector union in the city, also opposed it and actively worked to intimidate other City Council members against supporting it.

United Federation of Teachers President Michael Mulgrew reversed course on the Medicare Advantage push after Medicare Advantage foes won election and took control of the UFT Retired Teachers Chapter in 2024. Nevertheless, like Garrdio, the UFT under Mulgrew’s leadership, also insists that Intro.

“New York City is a Union Town—we hear this every day from Mayor Mamdani,” she said on Sunday, the sixth day of the home care worker hunger strike. “And that he supports union workers, and that all New Yorkers deserve to live and work with dignity. Yet, Julie Menin is trying to change the [No More 24] bill and delay dignity for these union workers. It seems that when New York City government talks about giving dignity to union workers—they’re only talking about men in hard hats.

Estrella was one of several aides mentioned in an April report to the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights from five UN special rapporteurs which said they had “received concerning allegations of a government-subsidized 24-hour workday system for home-care workers in New York City that disproportionately affects women, especially migrant women, in detrimental ways.” Those allegations included that New York State was failing to enforce its minimum-wage law, by funding through...