Always with the marching! Thousands of demonstrators, many of them union members, are currently marching on Broadway, from Herald Square to Union Square, where the march will continue down to Zuccotti Park. The late-afternoon protest comes on the heels of a smaller march last night from Bryant Park to the Sheraton Hotel, where police corralled protesters in a "free speech zone" and refused to let them disperse until President Obama was done speaking at a fundraiser. Now they're at it again, and Mother Jones reporter Josh Harkinson says, "My office off Broadway is surrounded by police barricades, cop cars, and helicopters." more ›

The Waterfront Commission of New York Harbor is trying to get the dock workers' union to enlist more blacks and Hispanics to work at ports in New Jersey and New York, but they're finding that it's heavy lifting. Today the Times reports that the International Longshoremen’s Association, which has controlled the ports for decades, has defied orders to diversify. Ordered by the Commission to submit a diverse list of candidates for temporary jobs unloading baggage from cruise ships, the union came up with 37 candidates. 33 were were white men, none were Hispanic—and the only black candidate on the list "did not really want a job," according to the Commission. more ›

Three men and one woman were arrested during yesterday's spirited protests against the tuition hikes that were passed by the CUNY Board of Trustees. According to the NYPD, those arrested faced varying charges of reckless endangerment, harassment, and disorderly conduct outside a Baruch College building, where hundreds of protesters had gathered as the meeting itself became closed to the public. "Money does affect me," a CUNY sophomore tells Baruch's newspaper, the Ticker. "I have two jobs…Tuition is hard for me, I pay it by month and every dollar counts." more ›

Intern labor makes the word go round, and though you may not have to pay them, bones (college credit, coffee mugs, a Koosh ball that may or may not have been tossed by Rosie O'Donnell in 1998) must be thrown their way. However, according to a lawsuit filed by six "demolition interns" against Forest City Ratner, the developer promised them jobs and union cards for their participation in a 15-week "apprenticeship course" on their Atlantic Yards project, but they ended up with nothing. "What they did was wrong and misleading," one of the apprentices tells the Brooklyn Paper. Beware of an internship that's shorter than a semester! more ›

After aligning themselves with the Occupy Wall Street movement, the United Federation of Teaches believes the NYPD has put their offices under constant surveillance. "I'll put it this way," UFT President Michael Mulgrew tells NY1, "We are a very safe building at this point in time since we seem to have all our exits and entrances are all being watched." more ›

Lech Walesa, the Nobel Peace Prize-winning former president of Poland, will show his support of Occupy Wall Street by paying Zuccotti Park a visit. "How could I not respond," Walesa said, "The thousands of people gathered near Wall Street are worried about the fate of their future, the fate of their country. This is something I understand." more ›

In his weekly radio address, billionaire autocrat Michael Bloomberg took the opportunity to criticize the groups of students, labor unions, and other demonstrators who haven taken to Lower Manhattan to protest the state of our economy. "They're trying to take away the tax base we have, because none of this is good for tourism," Bloomberg said, apparently unaware that the tourists are eating it up and that some of the protesters are tourists themselves. He also claimed that those in Zuccotti Park were "trying to destroy the jobs of working people in this city." more ›

For the seventh time in four years Mayor Bloomberg has announced from upon high that city agencies must trim the fat off their books. Just like he did earlier this year, Bloomberg has declared that almost all city agencies need to cut off two percent of their budgets for this fiscal year, which ends June 30, 2012. Crazier, he expects them to trim an additional six percent next year. That should save about $500 million this year and $1.5 billion next year. So maybe now is not the time to quit your job to follow your dream of being a low-level city employee? more ›

If you think Wal-Mart would just plop down a store or two in East New York and call it a day, you don't know Wal-Mart. In order for the big box chain to gain 21% grocery market share, which is what they enjoy in the rest of the country, they would need to build 159 stores in New York City. That's 159 more places to get these fabulous hamster beds. more ›

The US Postal Service made it clear earlier this week that they were close to shutting down in the face of a $9.2 billion budget deficit and a $5.5 billion payment due on the 30th of this month. But now the Times reports that the Obama administration is proposing covering the gap for an extra three months. An extension? At least that's better than a "bailout," which would be totally unheard of and completely uncalled for. more ›

Low prices may mean low standards when it comes to fair labor practices at big-box stores. Tashawna Green, the 21-year-old employee who Crain's calls the "face of the failed campaign to make a Valley Stream, L.I., store the first unionized Target in the country," was fired from her $8/hour job just weeks after the employees voted down union membership. Green, who has a 6-year-old daughter, says Target's management didn't take kindly to her push for unionization: "Because I'm for the union, they wanted to get rid of me." more ›

No wonder people seem to be paying their way into an MTA job: according to a study [pdf] released yesterday, average salaries at the transit agency increased by 3 percent, to $71,237 from 2010, and payroll itself swelled by $71 million, or 1.4 percent, despite the fact that the MTA shed 852 employees last year. According to the Empire Center (i.e. the Manhattan Institute), "For the third consecutive year, more than 10 percent of the MTA's workforce—7,993 individuals—took home $100,000 or more in total pay." Perhaps MTA employees have been working both smarter and harder to make up for the loss of their peers. more ›

New evidence provided by the Hotel Worker's Union, Local 6 appears to show that the New York Post was given documentation that disproved the paper's statements that Dominique Strauss-Kahn's accuser was placed there by the union as a prostitute "earner," and may bolster her libel suit against the paper. more ›

Genghis Khan, King Leopold, Adolf Hitler…Chris Christie? At a rally outside the New Jersey Statehouse in Trenton, union leader Christopher Shelton compared the governor of New Jersey to the leader of Nazi Germany, telling a crowd of several thousand, "Welcome to Nazi Germany. The first thing that the Nazis and Adolf Hitler did was to go after the unions." Shelton, the head of the Communication Workers of America, was there with other union officials and politicians to protest legislation that would raise the cost of pension and health benefits for public employees. According to the Star-Ledger, Shelton went on to call two democrats who supported the bill "Adolf Christie's generals." He continued: "Any politician who stands up against collective bargaining, in this state or any other, is not a Democrat. They're Nazis, goddamn it." more ›

In the wake of the additional budget cuts and teacher layoffs announced on Friday, the city's unions are warming up for Thursday's rally on Wall Street by protesting House Speaker John Boehner's remarks tonight at the Economic Club of New York. Boehner, who is in town after stumping upstate for congressional candidate Jane Corwin earlier today, is expected to speak on "creating a better environment for private-sector job growth," which to the unions is code for "trying to cut funding for the regulations designed to prevent another collapse." more ›

Sharpen your pitchforks and burn your Brooks Brothers, because the "fat cat" members of the city's unions are planning to protest against Wall Street's callous disregard for humanity lopsided profits and Bloomberg's slash-and-burn policies on May 12. Billed as "The Day We Made Wall Street Stand Still" (they'll also have to shut down Hillstone), members of the United Federation of Teachers, 1199 SEIU and the Coalition for the Homeless will attempt to shame the well-heeled folks who "wrecked our economy and are back to making billions in profits and lavish bonuses, while the rest of us are still cleaning up the mess," the Daily News reports. more ›

Other states love it when Mayor Bloomberg lectures them on how to run things in their quaint provincial governments. Arizona really appreciated it when Bloomberg sent investigators to do a hidden camera sting at a gun show, and now it's Wisconsin's turn to get advice from Bloomberg, who has repeatedly denied he's running for president while busting out presidential-sounding talking points. In an op-ed in the NY Times today, the mayor sympathizes with Wisconsin legislators' need to balance the budget, while also siding with unions' right to bargain collectively: more ›

New York State’s 1,300 judges are unhappy. And if we had gone 12 years without a raise we'd probably be a bit peeved too. But are they unhappy enough to start a union? Possibly! more ›

Since it was reported that 51 NYC Transit bus drivers took an average 64 paid days off last year after being spat on by passengers, the expectorated drivers have been coming forward to defend themselves and explain why they needed so much time to recover. Yesterday former city bus driver Oneisha Shade told CBS2 about the five months she took off before coming back to work after the spit assault, recalling how the saliva from an angry passenger hit her in the face and eye. But what CBS2 omitted is that Shade had also been assaulted on duty seven years earlier, when she was six months pregnant. And that attack happened with knives, not saliva! more ›

MTA officials are locking horns with the Transit Workers Union over rules governing overtime and sick time. The MTA brass says employees have been abusing the system and costing the Authority $560 million annually; part of that big expenditure was caused by the 25% of bus and subway workers took more than two weeks worth of sick days last year. Now the MTA is assigning a task force to crack down on employees who abuse sick days. Of course, the union is up in arms about it. more ›

With a federal judge temporarily blocking Governor Paterson's move to force state workers to take one day unpaid furloughs, other options are being considered. Yesterday the Governor was opaque on how the state might operate without a budget when the money runs out at the end of the month, but Lt. Gov. Richard Ravitch hasn't pulled punches. On Tuesday he said that if furloughs were ruled illegal, the Paterson administration might simply lay off state workers. Paterson has not ruled out that option, and yesterday he said he was determined to fight for furloughs. more ›

Furloughs: They're not just for soldiers and prisoners! Starting next week, some 100,000 state workers could be required to take a one day, unpaid furlough from work. And as you can see from this photo of a massive protest outside the State Capitol yesterday, they are not happy about it. more ›

Needing to make $250 million in public workforce cuts, Gov. David Paterson suggested instituting furloughs for over 100,000 unionized state workers yesterday. Though the policy's legality is being questioned, Paterson defensively insisted that this is the move to make, saying, "Nobody thought I could appoint a lieutenant governor and I did. The courts sustained it. I’ve been sued before. I think that the collective sacrifice is preferable to individual layoffs at this time." more ›