The New York City Central Labor Council, the umbrella organization representing more then a million workers, lost two powerful unions this week because of a controversy over its president. A spokesman for 32BJ, which represents 70,000 building service workers, said Thursday the union had withdrawn from the labor council. The Hotel Trades Council quit the [...]
Leaders of some of New York’s most influential unions are discussing abandoning Gov. David A. Paterson as he prepares to run for a full term next year, a sweeping defection that could prove lethal to his hopes of winning his party’s nomination. The leaders, who represent a broad cross section of labor groups, expressed concern, [...]
Facing a crisis in its pension fund, 1199, New York’s giant health care union, reached an innovative settlement on Monday that calls for forgoing nearly a billion dollars in raises for 145,000 union members so that hospitals can increase their pension contributions to safeguard future retirement benefits. The union, formally called 1199 S.E.I.U. United Healthcare [...]
Dockworkers, public-school teachers and Rochester billionaire Tom Golisano lead an army of special interests, with nearly $70 million in their campaign coffers, according to an analysis of PAC money. The first-of-its-kind survey by the New York Public Interest Research Group of more than 3,300 active campaign accounts found political-action committees accounted for more than a [...]
The city’s Board of Elections is violating the law by not using a statewide voter database to help get rid of duplicate registrations, state election officials ruled. The state Board of Elections, in a ruling this summer, gave the city agency until next Wednesday to start using the database and reduce as many duplicate and [...]
Telecommunications company Verizon and two unions representing 65,000 workers who had threatened to strike within hours agreed Sunday on a new three-year contract that provides 10.5 percent wage increases and changes in retirement benefits. The pact, which must be ratified by union members, was hailed as a “breakthrough agreement in many ways” by Communications Workers [...]
As political rituals go, it was one of Albany’s most predictable. Every two years, a state law that required public employees to pay their unions’ dues regardless of whether they joined would near expiration. And every two years, the Legislature would renew the law. For more than three decades, unions pushed to make it permanent. [...]
As Con Edison works to keep up with the demand of the hot summer months, thousands of workers who keep the electricity flowing are threatening to walk off the job, if they don’t get a new contract. The members of Local 1-2 voted to strike if a new contract is not reached by the end [...]
