New York City (NYC)

Worker Coops Bring Undocumented Workers Into The Labor Movement

August 28, 2024 Tareq Saghie, Labor Notes. Create! Immigration, Labor Movement, New York City (NYC), Worker Rights, Worker Rights and Jobs

How can immigrants without work authorization avoid being hyper-exploited, and instead find work where they have some autonomy and collective power to raise standards? A movement that has been incubating in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, might offer some answers. Sunset Park boasts one of the highest concentrations of worker cooperatives in the United States. This business model, brought to the neighborhood by the Center for Family Life, guarantees all members standard and legal wages, a voice in their company’s governance, and control over their schedules. Since members are business owners, not employees, they also do not need work authorization.

Bike Theft Discourages People From Riding Bikes

August 26, 2024 Maylin Tu, Next City. Create! Bikes, New York City (NYC), Safety, Transportation

In 2019, I rode my bike about one mile to the metro station and locked it to a bike rack out front. Then, I took the train to a friend’s party. When I got back, my bike was gone. I couldn’t afford to buy a new bike, so I went without one for the next two years. It’s a familiar scenario for many bike riders. In a city like L.A., bike theft feels as everyday as sunny skies and fruit carts selling delicious sliced mango and watermelon. One report estimates that a whopping two million bikes are stolen every year in America. Many people don’t replace their bikes, a fact that Brooklyn-based cyclist and entrepreneur Shabazz Stuart often cites. “It’s just the 800-pound gorilla in the room,” he says.

‘Left Behind’ Contract Workers At Con Ed Demand Family-Sustaining Jobs

August 24, 2024 Barbara Russo-Lennon, AMNY. Resist! New York City (NYC), Strikes, Unions, Worker Rights and Jobs

Dozens of contracted cleaners and 32BJ SEIU union members rallied outside Con Edison’s Union Square headquarters on Aug. 14 to demand the company nix ties with Nelson Services Systems, a contractor that workers say pays sub-par wages. Nelson employs all 55 of the workers who rallied. The employees work at Con Ed offices, customer service centers and substations throughout the city — and they all say Nelson has “failed to improve their pay or benefits.” The workers also said they have been “left behind,” because Nelson’s cleaners at the utility’s power plants scored a victory by joining the utility workers union, UWUA, on Aug. 6.

Waves Of Protests Follow Police Killing Of Sonya Massey

August 5, 2024 People's Dispatch. Resist! Black America, Black Lives Matter (BLM), Chicago, Illinois, Los Angeles, New York City (NYC), Police, police brutality, Sonya Massey

On July 6, 36-year-old Black woman Sonya Massey was shot and killed by white police officer Sean Grayson after inviting the police into her own home, seeking protection from a potential intruder. On July 22, body camera footage was released to the public of Massey’s killing, shocking the nation and harkening to previous examples of police violence against Black people. The body camera footage that has emerged has shed light on a particularly disgusting case of police impunity. As a result, protests have erupted over the past few weeks across the country, including in major cities such as New York City, Los Angeles, and Chicago.

Why So Many Congestion Pricing Critics Change Their Tune

August 4, 2024 Akielly Hu, Next City. Create! Air Quality, climate crisis, Finance and the Economy, Fossil Fuels, New York City (NYC), Transportation, Urban Design

New York City’s plan to charge most vehicles $15 to enter downtown Manhattan would have eased traffic, cut pollution, and raised billions for mass transit. But Governor Kathy Hochul — in an 11th-hour reversal — placed congestion pricing on hold indefinitely, leaving a $15 billion gap in the city’s transit upgrade plans. Hochul, a Democrat, cited a slow economic recovery from the pandemic and the burden the tolls would place on low-income residents, but sources say she also feared upsetting swing district voters who could decide key elections this fall. Most people balk at the idea of paying more for anything, and congestion pricing plans are no exception.

Leadership In AFSCME DC 37 Is Stifling Rank And File Engagement

August 2, 2024 Duncan Freeman, Labor Notes. Resist! Labor Movement, New York City (NYC), Rank and File, Unions, Worker Rights and Jobs

Members of District Council 37's Local 3005 in New York City say that attempts to mobilize their coworkers over the last two years have been stonewalled and met with apathy by union leadership. Current and former members say that since the pandemic, they have presented proposals to create a membership committee, speak out about city budget cuts, fight for telework rights and other efforts and that all were slow-walked or shot down by the union’s president Jeff Oshins. Most recently, some members have wanted to introduce motions calling for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and for the New York City Employees' Retirement System to divest from Israeli bonds and securities.

Nodutdol Launches US Out Of Korea Campaign

July 29, 2024 Fight Back! News. Resist! New York City (NYC), North Korea, South Korea, US Intervention

New York, NY – Several hundred people gathered in midtown Manhattan at The People’s Forum to launch Nodutdol’s U.S. Out of Korea campaign. Hundreds more gathered at events in Oakland and Los Angeles for similar launch events. The event began with Nodutdol organizers presenting the background of the organization. Nodutdol (노듯돌, meaning stepping-stone) has roots in the 1990s when members of the Korean movement would travel to Korea to learn from the people in the South and North of the peninsula about their organizing against U.S. domination. They became fully established in 1999 in Queens, New York and in the early 2000s pivoted their focus to anti-war efforts in the Middle East. They continued their delegation trips to Korea and deepened their anti-imperialist resolve.

NYC Protesters Target AIG Over East African Crude Oil Pipeline

July 27, 2024 Jessica Corbett, Common Dreams. Resist! Africa, AIG, Divestment, New York City (NYC), Oil and Gas, Pipelines, Tanzania, Uganda

The "Summer of Heat" continues—both in terms of record-breaking temperatures driven by fossil fuels and a series of nonviolent direct actions targeting Wall Street for its contributions to the climate emergency. After protests last month calling out Citibank for "financing the arsonists," climate campaigners on Friday set their sights on finance and insurance giant AIG for "stubbornly" refusing to join over two dozen other insurers that won't cover the East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP). EACOP is set to run nearly 900 miles from Uganda's Lake Albert oilfields to the port of Tanga in Tanzania. Rights groups have sounded the alarm about how the project has devastated the lives and livelihoods of people in its path as well as violence endured by African activists, who have been "kidnapped, arbitrarily arrested, detained, or subjected to different forms of harassment."

Drivers Rally After Getting Kicked Out Of Uber And Lyft Apps

July 25, 2024 Justine Re, Spectrum News. Resist! Gig Economy, Gig Workers, Lyft, Manhattan, New York (NY), New York City (NYC), Strikes, Transportation, Uber

Rideshare drivers rallied at Zuccotti Park in Manhattan Wednesday, protesting getting locked out of the Uber and Lyft apps on their shifts. They chanted, “No drivers, no Uber.” In order to operate, the Taxi and Limousine Commission said Uber and Lyft, combined, need to have passengers riding in their cars 53% of the time. In March 2023, the TLC adjusted the pay formula for the apps for the “empty time component.” That is, the time drivers spend on duty waiting to dispatch with no passenger in their car. City regulations require drivers to be compensated for the time they’re waiting for a dispatch. Uber and Lyft locked drivers out of the app during their shifts.

New York City Teacher Retirees Save Their Medicare

July 23, 2024 Jenny Brown, Labor Notes. Resist! Health Care, Medicare, Medicare Advantage, New York City (NYC), Retirees, Unions, Victory

The dissident Retiree Advocate caucus in the giant New York City teachers union won a decisive victory over the incumbents in the retiree chapter election June 14, winning 63 percent of the 27,000 votes cast. Turnout jumped compared to previous elections. In addition to running the 70,000-member Retired Teachers Chapter, they will send 300 delegates to the union’s delegate assembly. The leadership of the union got the message and abruptly dropped its support for Medicare Advantage, after three years of vigorously campaigning to impose a for-profit plan on 250,000 city retirees to save money for city officials.

NYC Public Schools Chancellor Suppresses Palestinian Voices

July 8, 2024 Mohammad Jehad Ahmad, Mondoweiss. Resist! Censorship, Education, Israel, New York City (NYC), Palestine, Public schools

Since long before “Israel’s” October 2023 escalation of the genocide against Palestinians, the New York City Public Schools (NYCPS) has both systemically erased and marginalized Palestinian narratives. This suppression comes from the top, most recently with NYCPS Chancellor David Banks’ Zionist internal communications and decision-making. Since October, Banks has taken every opportunity to reaffirm his commitment to continue his anti-intellectual conflation of Zionism and Judaism. He held press conferences and expressed support for unharmed and unvictimized Zionist students and staff who breached contracts and engaged in disruptive political actions on and off school grounds.

CUNY Encampment Felony Charges Could Set A Dangerous Precedent

July 2, 2024 Hebh Jamal and CHarlie Markbreiter, Mondoweiss. Educate! Campus Movement, CUNY, Israel, Legal System, New York (NY), New York City (NYC), Palestine, Police, Repression

Earlier this month, the Manhattan district attorney’s office dropped felony charges against nine pro-Palestinian protesters arrested at City College’s encampment on the fateful police raid orchestrated on April 30. Thirteen protestors, however, could still serve felonies, including up to nine years of jail. While organizers have faced legal threats nationally, CUNY students — who, in addition to being predominantly POC and working class, are consistently some of the most militant student intifada members — have been hit with the highest charges. This sends a message: when it comes to Zionist repression, the most vulnerable and most radical students will be the first to go. But the consequences of the CUNY 22 trial extend far beyond CUNY.

Columbia University Hind’s Hall Defendants Reject Deals

June 29, 2024 The Hind’s Hall 46, Mondoweiss. Resist! Campus Movement, Columbia University, CUNY, Israel, New York (NY), New York City (NYC), Palestine, Palestine Solidarity, Solidarity, Student Protests

We stand here today united by our action and the Palestinian cause. The state has attempted, once again, to divide us, dismissing some of our cases and offering others deals in accordance with their “outside agitator” narrative. As ever, we categorically reject this division as one drawn along arbitrary, classist lines meant to preserve the sanctity of Columbia University—not an institution “in the City of New York,” but always above and apart from it. All of us who took part in the liberation of Hind’s Hall were driven by the same necessity to escalate, to escalate for Gaza, to resist the savage genocide of our siblings in Palestine.

Little Palestine Responds To NYPD’s Nakba Day Rampage In Their Community

May 25, 2024 Amba Guerguerian, The Indypendent. Resist! Little Palestine, Nakba, New York City (NYC), NYPD, Police

When several thousand Palestinians and their allies gathered Saturday at the intersection of Fifth and Ovington avenues in the heart of Bay Ridge’s Little Palestine, they were greeted by legions of NYPD riot cops intent on marring the occasion. On Tuesday the event’s organizers returned to the same spot to denounce the police violence that was unleashed against them. “They come into our communities and call us outside agitators, when we know they’re the real outside agitators” said Nerdeen Kiswani, cofounder of Within Our Lifetime Palestine, the Bay Ridge-based group that led Saturday’s protest. The overbearing police presence could still be felt on Tuesday.

NYC’s Independent Recyclers Emerged From Pandemic Stronger Than Ever

May 25, 2024 Oscar Perry Abello, Next City. Create! New York City (NYC), Pandemic, Recycling, Worker Rights

New York’s canners and lateros have acquired property, created a redemption facility and community hub – and begun to organize. Josefa Marin and her partner Pedro Galicia arrive at 6:30 a.m. most mornings outside the Sure We Can Redemption Center in Brooklyn’s trendy Bushwick neighborhood. The facility itself won’t open for another hour, but in the meantime they get a head start on sorting through the cans and bottles they’ve collected the previous night from apartment buildings, restaurants, bars, clubs or events where organizers have tabbed the couple to help out with recycling.

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