Media Links
April 14, 2011
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Source: NY Daily NewsThe Metropolitan Transportation Authority has agreed to move out of a Greenpoint parking lot and make way for a long-promised waterfront park.
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Source: NY Daily NewsA subway supervisor is getting trashed for using a subway train with passengers to move garbage picked up by a cleaning crew.
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Source: Second Ave. SagasOver the past four and a half years, I haven’t smiled upon the 7 line extension. A pet project of Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s that serves as a living relic of the city’s failed Olympics bid, the $2.1 billion extension has seen useful elements — such as a station at 41st St. and 10th Ave. — eliminated. While the new stop at 34th St. and 11th Ave. is one that will benefit an eventual neighborhood, at a time when subway expansion dollars are very limited, this Subway to Nowhere isn’t the best use of funds.
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Source: NY Daily NewsComputer software glitches and other stumbles at the MTA's new Business Service Center resulted in dozens of vendors getting duplicate checks for the same work, authorities confirmed Wednesday. The double payments totaled approximately $3 million, including two $500,000 checks to a large utility, the authority said.
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Source: NY Daily NewsThe state yanked 124 bus drivers and 96 unsafe buses from the roads in the wake of a fatal discount-bus crash in the Bronx, the Daily News has learned.
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Source: Long Island HeraldThe Metropolitan Transportation Authority, Nassau County and state Senate Republicans announced an agreement on April 1 to avert proposed cuts to the MTA’s Long Island Bus service. The cuts, which were announced in March, were expected to affect more than half of Nassau County’s bus routes, including the N14 North Rockville Centre Loop Bus.
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Source: AFL-CIO NOW BlogThe AFL-CIO Executive Council welcomed Larry Hanley and Cliff Guffey as new members today. Hanley was elected Sept. 30 as president of the Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU), succeeding Warren George, who retired and also resigned from the Executive Council.
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Source:Last Friday, NY Jobs with Justice and other members of the Walmart-Free NYC Coalition staged a flash mob in Time Warner Center, headquarters of the Related Companies, the real estate developer currently in talks to lease Walmart space to build its first store in New York City.
April 13, 2011
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Source: DNAinfo.comFunding has been restored for thousands of new public school seats that had been on the chopping block, Schools Chancellor-to-be Dennis Walcott announced Tuesday following a day of meetings in Albany.
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Source: NY Daily NewsSome real trash rides the rails late at night.
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Source: In These Times
Construction unions, AFL-CIO, work with Republicans to protect wages, Project Labor Agreements
WASHINGTON, D.C.—Earlier this year, a small minority of Republicans helped Democrats defeat a GOP attack on two key labor provisions aimed at hurting construction workers. The defeat was a result of a dynamic decade-long effort by construction unions to persuade business and Republicans of the importance of union rights on construction sites.
Forty-eight Republicans, including leader Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), joined 185 Democrats in opposing a repeal of the Davis-Bacon Act. The Act mandates wage levels on federally funded construction projects and ensures that they do not undercut existing union wage levels. Likewise, 26 Republicans joined 184 Democrats to barely defeat an anti-Project Labor Agreement (PLA) amendment with a 210-210 vote.
PLAs are often used by government agencies and companies to negotiate, before construction even begins or bids are made, pay, benefits and safety issues. They help to ensure that unionized construction firms are not at a competitive disadvantage. They have been a top target of anti-union forces since President Barack Obama permitted their use on federal constructed projects, as I wrote for Working in These Times last fall.
At a time when GOP governors are rapidly rolling back union rights, it was a major victory—and a major surprise—that Republicans such as Paul Ryan joined with organized labor to protect union rights. Union officials say the key to this unlikely defeat has been building relationships with those traditionally opposed to them, such as big construction firms, and persuading Republicans of the importance of wage and safety standards for business.
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Source: NY ObserverOn Monday afternoon, across the street from Serafina on East 61st Street, a coffin sat on a black metal platform-the latest attention-grabbing prop adopted by union members now that Scabbie the inflatable rat has become more a beloved urban mascot than a shocking symbol of corporate malfeasance. The mostly plastic casket was black with faux wood paneling, gaudy silver plastic trim and a yellow banner that read "Asbestos Kills!" Nearby, in a white van, Angel Rivera, organizer for Local 78, the Union of Asbestos, Lead and Hazardous Waste Laborers, was sitting shiva.
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Source: ABCThe upper deck of the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge is getting a $419 million overhaul.
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Source: WCBS 880AMThe NYPD's headcount now is over 34,000, about 6,000 fewer than at its peak staffing in 2000.
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Source: Fast Lane / Department of TransportationFor the American economy to flourish, our nation's arteries of commerce must be able to handle a tremendous flow of goods and people. That's why we must continue repairing our existing roads, bridges, and transit systems. That's why we must continue building the safest, fastest, most efficient new ways to keep Americans and American products moving.
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Source: NY PostGov. Cuomo yesterday vowed to veto a blizzard of bills introduced by spend-happy lawmakers that would boost cushy pensions for government workers and stick taxpayers with nearly $1 billion in additional costs.
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Source: Connecticut PostGov. Dannel P. Malloy has developed a "doomsday" contingency plan that could drastically slash local budgets throughout Connecticut if state unions balk at approving $1 billion in savings and concessions.
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Source:Gerald McEntee, 76, who has led the largest public employee union for 30 years, is mobilizing as his members’ rights and benefits are under assault.
April 12, 2011
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Source: NY Daily NewsThe city's "Taxi of Tomorrow" will be a wheelchair-accessible model built by a Turkish manufacturer if a proposed state bill is passed.
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Source: NY Daily NewsA record number of New Yorkers were forced into city homeless shelters last year, according to a new report released Monday.
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