Growing tired of the inertia in collective bargaining talks between Cablevision and the company’s Brooklyn employees, City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, Public Advocate Bill de Blasio and Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer stood with workers outside of Madison Square Garden to demand that Cablevision negotiate in good faith and reinstate a group of workers who were dismissed a week ago. Last week,  Quinn and de Blasio–both Democratic candidates for mayor–ventured deep into Brooklyn to stand with 23 Brooklyn Cablevision workers… [More]

Who are the 100 most powerful people in New York City politics and government? The answer is both subjective and controversial. Still, in an attempt to arrive at a ranking that reflects who really drives the city’s agenda, City & State has consulted political insiders, considered dozens of reader nominations and incorporated the results of our online polls.… [More]

The key New York issues and players in organized labor. THE ISSUES: PAID SICK LEAVE After the passage of living-wage and prevailing-wage bills in New York City, a coalition of labor and community groups has revived a paid-sick-leave bill. The legislation, which would mandate paid time off for workers who are ill or need to take care of family members, has put pressure on Council Speaker Christine Quinn, who has not allowed a vote despite strong support in the City… [More]

After enthusiastically accepting the endorsement of the Communications Workers of America Local 1180 at City Hall today, Assemblyman Hakeem Jeffries accused his opponent, Congressman Ed Towns, of moving in the “wrong direction” on issues important to the labor movement. “He’s been very counterproductive in his position on many labor issues during his 30 year term in Congress, most specifically reflected by his negative and affirmative votes for NAFTA and CAFTA at a critical time in the free trade debate,” Jeffries… [More]

* Mayor Michael Bloomberg isn’t the only one in City Hall who benefits from a change in term limits. His legal counsel, Anthony Crowell, is finishing his third one-year term as chairman of the Brooklyn Public Library board – the most allowed by its bylaws – but his heir apparent Laura Ensler moved to Queens and left the board. So the board is expected to soon extend terms for all its top officials, giving the chairman up to three two-year… [More]

As New York labor unions prepare to rally in solidarity with the Occupy Wall Street protesters today, many of their leaders are grappling with the fact that a ragtag group of youthful agitators has been more successful than professional labor organizers at capturing the mood of the country. Unions have staged half a dozen major rallies and protests across New York this year to denounce budget cuts and worker layoffs. They rallied in Albany stairwells, filled the City Hall steps… [More]

Senior Associate, Berlin Rosen Age: 28   Getting Dan Levitan to talk about himself is like trying to squish a camel through a needle’s eye. As a wunderkind spokesman for the Working Families Party, and now as a consultant at Berlin Rosen, his job is to speak effectively for others. He’s so good at this sort of client-spokesman Vulcan mind-meld that Capitol Tonight reporter Liz Benjamin once called his ability to channel former boss Dan Cantor “uncanny.” Levitan said he’s… [More]

Christine Quinn, Speaker, New York City Council Q: Is there a gulf between public and private sector unions in New York City? CQ: There is a strong sense of connection and support between the private and public sector unions. I think they work together on a lot of different issues. Certainly you see a lot of unity between them and their concerns on the Central Labor Council. Now, they’re not going to always agree, but I think there’s a lot… [More]

Verizon CEO Ivan Seidenberg pulled in an $18.1 million bonus last year—about 300 times what the company’s average worker earns. But when striking Verizon employees saw Seidenberg sneaking away from a raucous picket line outside the company’s West Side offices last week, all the money in the world couldn’t save the CEO from merciless booing and catcalling. As they tried to keep cool under umbrellas and quaffed bottled water, the red-shirted Communications Workers of America members promised they would heckle… [More]

If ever anyone deserved to be a posthumous winner, it would of course be Gov. Hugh Carey, whose funeral yesterday was a reunion of sorts for the generation of pols that rose to the challenge of New York’s fiscal crisis in the 1970s. Judge for yourself whether any of this week’s Winners & Losers can meet that standard. John Bonacic – The Republican state senator from Orange County got a boost when Gov. Andrew Cuomo acknowledged he was exploring legalizing… [More]