Brooklyn City Council candidate Carlos Menchaca, who is challenging incumbent Councilwoman Sara Gonzalez, added another labor endorsement today when the Communications Workers of America District 1 announced that they would be lending their support to his campaign. “Carlos Menchaca is the voice New York’s workers need on the City Council,” said Chris Shelton, vice president of CWA, in a statement. “Carlos has spent his entire career serving his neighbors, working to expand affordable housing, and fighting on behalf of small… [More]

Bronx City Council candidate Ritchie Torres added to his cache of labor endorsements with the additional support of the Communications Workers of America (CWA District 1) and the Sanitation Workers union (IBT Local 831). “Ritchie is a dynamic young leader and is just what the Bronx needs,” said Chris Shelton, Vice President of CWA. “Ritchie knows and understands the struggles of working men and women and CWA will do everything we can to make sure Ritchie is elected to the City Council.” Torres, a former… [More]

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]

In the latest development in the ongoing battle between Cablevision and its Brooklyn workers over their attempt to unionize, the cable company fired 23 employees on Wednesday after they allegedly refused to return to their jobs after confronting management about a lack of movement at the negotiating table. “A small number of Brooklyn technicians refused to work Wednesday after several requests to return to their jobs,” said Cablevision Spokesman Jim Maiella. “Therefore, Cablevision took legal and appropriate steps to maintain adequate… [More]

New York City Council candidate Yetta Kurland, who is running for the seat of mayoral contender and Council Speaker Christine Quinn, was endorsed by the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, a national organization that fights for progressive issues and candidates around the country. Kurland said she was flattered that the PCCC took notice of her grassroots campaign. “We are more than excited that the PCCC came out with an endorsement for us,” she said. “They rarely take the time to get… [More]

Continuing a fight that began nearly a year ago, the Communications Workers of America, in support of the Brooklyn Cablevision workers ongoing efforts to unionize, released a report yesterday titled “Leaving Brooklyn Behind”, which aims to demonstrate that Cablevision is delivering poor service to customers in Brooklyn. The report, which included a survey of over 700 Brooklyn Cablevision customers, showed that nearly 25 percent of customers rate their service as “poor” or “terrible”, and only 37 percent rated it favorably.… [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]

To put it lightly, relations between the Cuomo administration and the state’s labor force could be a lot better. The governor was able to win his landslide victory last year without a lot of labor support, but unlike other states, unions in New York are still a force to be reckoned with. With big issues creeping up, like pension reform, the debate is expected to get a lot more polarized. Here is a snapshot of the state’s top unions.… [More]