Working Life

   When I first read the story today about Andrew Cuomo, it seemed fairly in line with previous things he has said about his plan to attack the labor movement if he wins the election: Andrew M. Cuomo will mount a presidential-style permanent political campaign to counter the well-financed labor unions he believes have bullied […]

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   This is very good news: In a city of secret economies, few are as vital to the life of New York as the business of nannies, the legions of women who emancipate high-powered professionals and less glamorous working parents from the duties of daily child care so they might get to work. Those nannies, […]

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   Here we go, another example of a lack of courage: Days after a federal judge blocked his efforts to furlough half the state work force, Gov. David A. Paterson is drafting a plan that would lay off thousands of government workers at the beginning of next year, a move officials say is necessary to […]

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    Good news: A federal judge Wednesday put on hold a state plan to furlough about 100,000 employees for a single day next week, as tensions between Gov. David A. Paterson and lawmakers over a budget stalemate escalated. To avoid a government shutdown, lawmakers Monday voted to force about half of the state work force […]

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   This is not a new phenomena but it must be underscored: unemployment hits blacks, especially men, much harder than the rest of the population, as the Fiscal Policy Institute found is the case in New York City: The FPI report found that the citywide unemployment rate in the third quarter was 15.7 percent for […]

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   The official news for New York City is grim: Continuing layoffs on Wall Street drove New York City’s unemployment rate to 10.3 percent in August, a 16-year high that underscores the need to retrain former financial services workers for other jobs, state officials said Thursday.    Note that I said the "official" news. Because, […]

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The other day, I saw an amazing spectacle: a firefighter responded to a call to a burning building in New York City and, as he was dragging the fire hose to the fire, a crowd of angry people stopped him and said, "Stop. Your pension is too generous so don’t you dare put that fire […]

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   I’ve been honored to be part of a campaign in New York to try to win some basic rights for the 200,000 women who labor every day as domestic workers in New York–200,000!!! So, to get to the point, here is an update and some thing you can do: You’ll be happy to know […]

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   Nothing is keeping my anger quotient higher than the refusal by politicians in New York state–and across the nation–to tax the rich. It is nothing less than an obscenity. We’ve got mountains of money piled high in a few bank accounts–and, yet, no one wants to ask those fortunate few to stop cuts in […]

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    This is potentially a big story–and an important one. For many years, cities and states have been caught in effectively a blackmail situation–companies threaten to leave or not relocate their businesses unless the municipalities hand over a whole host of tax breaks and incentives. In return for these gifts, companies promise that all sorts […]

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