By Jesse Russell

An attempt by New York's governor to reign in campaign financing has hit a snag with opposition coming from some of the state's largest unions. The main complaint, unions would see their hands tied while business would not be impacted the same way. Governor Elliott Spitzer's plan calls for a $350,000 cap on what union polictical action committees can contribute. For a union with 300,000 members that amounts to barely $1 per person. Some of the unions expressing opposition to the measure include SEIU Local 1199, the New York State United Teachers, and the Civil Service Employees Association. The three unions were major supporters of Spitzer during last year's election.

By Jesse Russell

Eighteen months out from the 2008 Presidential election, nine months out from the first scheduled primary, and with only one debate under her belt – the New York State AFL-CIO has passed a resolution urging the national AFL-CIO to consider supporting New York Senator Hillary Clinton as the next President of the United States. The resolution comes as a new poll shows nearly two-thirds of U.S. voters are already fatigued by the early-start of campaigns.

By Jesse Russell

This morning marked the first day that state agencies and local governments will begin offering same-sex marriage benefits across the state of New York. Last week Governor Eliot Spitzer ordered 378 state agencies and 800 local governments to open the state-administered health insurance program to same-sex couples. Specifically the order applies to those who were married in jurisdictions – such as Canada - where same-sex marriage is legalized.

By Jesse Russell

An ad campaign launched by the Service Employees Union in New York State has knocked down the popularity of newly elected Governor Elliott Spitzer. The former state attorney general’s favorability rating dropped 21 percentage points to 54 percent last month. The union is upset with a plan by Spitzer to strip $1.2 billion from the state’s Medicaid program. SEIU and the Greater New York Hospitals Association both are concerned that such a move could have a negative impact on healthcare services.

By Doug Cunningham

New York Governor Elliot Spitzer has rewarded the judge who slammed New York City’s transit union with a huge fine and the jailing of its leader for striking to defend their pensions. Judge Theodore Jones has been appointed by Spitzer to New York’s highest court – the Court of Appeals. As Attorney General of New York, Spitzer had asked the judge to hold transit union president Roger Toussaint in contempt of court for refusing to immediately end the strike.

By Doug Cunningham

One man has blocked labor union rights for more than 50,000 home day care workers in New York state. Republican Governor George Pataki vetoed a bill from the state legislature that would have given collective bargaining rights to those workers.

Pataki’s anti-labor action is in stark contrast to Democratic governors in Illinois and Iowa who supported the right of tens of thousands of home day care workers to be represented by unions. Pataki claimed the bill giving these home day care workers union rights may have jeopardized some $315 million in federal block grants for child care programs.

By Doug Cunningham

SEIU 1199 in New York and the Greater New York Hospital Association have launched a web-based e advocacy campaign called The Healthcare Education Project. It's an effort to stop $1.3 billion in health care budget cuts proposed by New York Governor Pataki. Thousands of SEIU members are sending petition signatures and send e-mails to elected officials. Pataki's cuts include serious cuts in Medicaid reimbursements and to nursing homes. SEIU says Pataki's planned cuts will shift hundreds of millions of dollars in health care costs to New Yorkers through benefit reductions and increased co-pays.

By Doug Cunningham

Denis Hughes, President of the New York State AFL-CIO, says while workers today on paper have the legal right to form unions and to collectively bargain, that basic human right in far too many cases has been effectively taken away.

[Denis Hughes 1] : "It's a problem that we haven't really seen in America since way before the Great Depression. It's a move against the economic democracy - the right of economic democracy - that every American has based on the right of freedom of association and freedom of assembly. So these are very important times for us. And we have to make sure sure that everybody understands it."

By Doug Cunningham

SEIU 1199 members like Jim Crampton rode in the front of the bus in Buffalo in honor of civil rights pioneer Rosa Parks on Thursday.

[Jim Crampton] : "No one's riding in the first seat. That's reserved for Rosa."

Crampton is making a documentary about riding the bus to honor Parks.

By Doug Cunningham

Today is a day of action in the grad student teaching assistant strike at NYU. The Grad Student Organizing Committee , or GSOC, is asking undergrads like Julian Pena-Vargas to boycott classes in support of the strikers.

[Julian Pena-Vargas] : "What's gonna happen is we've put out a request for students and faculty to boycott classes on or off campus - not attend any classes on this day and instead to come out in support of GSOC at twelve o' clock noon at Washington Square."

GSOC's Jenny Shaw says an ultimatum from NYU administration threatening the strikers with loss of their stipends if they don't go back to work by next week won't break the grad student union…

By Jesse Russell

New York City nurses are protesting in and out of hospitals - seeking better working conditions and a solution to chronic understaffing. Last week nurses protested during their break time, standing outside of the cities public hospitals. But over the past two years, more than 3,700 "protests of assignment" have been filed in city hospitals.

Nancy Webber, spokesperson for the New York States Nurses Association explains:

[Webber]: If they feel they've been given an assignment that's unsafe for patients - for whatever reason - they fill out a form that says 'I will complete this assignment or carry it out, but only under protest, because I don't believe it’s safe."

Musicians at Radio City Music Hall authorized a strike over the venue's refusal to pay overtime. Radio City's owner Cablevision is refusing to pay anything more than the base rate musicians receive for twelve shows a week. This could be a problem for the Hall's annual Christmas Spectacular, where musicians play up to six shows every day.

By JoAnne Powers

New York Mayor Bloomberg has asked the federal government to pay prevailing union wages for rebuilding work after Hurricane Katrina. The Bush administration suspended the Davis Bacon Act in the Gulf Coast following the hurricane. Mayoral spokesman Jordan Barowitz says the cleanup after the September 11th attacks should be a model:

[Barowitz] "We paid our workers a prevailing wage that, in hindsight, was an excellent decision. Using skilled labor we were able to clean the Trade Center site a year ahead of schedule. It was 1.4 billion dollars under budget and, most importantly, there were no fatalities and no serious injuries despite working in unbelievably dangerous conditions."

Democratic Congressman Gregory Meeks has come under fire for crossing party lines to vote in favor of CAFTA. Critics say the agreement will cost US workers jobs. WIN correspondent Abraham Riesman met with Meeks late last week:

MEEKS: I’m there to create jobs; I’m not a labor organizer. But I decided that it’s my job to create jobs so people can go to work.

He remained undecided until the day of the vote, but eventually concluded that CAFTA will leave municipal and service jobs unharmed, while increasing shipping jobs.

MEEKS ON THAT: And when you export in New York, a large par

By Doug Cunningham

Roughly a thousand New York University graduate student workers are planning a fall labor action in defense of their collective bargaining rights. NYU has told UAW Local 2110 representing the workers that after five years NYU will no longer recognize the union, taking advantage of a Bush administration NLRB decision to try to smash the campus union. Jenny Shaw is with the bargaining committee of UAW Local 2110 at NYU.

[Jenny Shaw 1] : "Our contract officially ends on August 31st of this year. And I think it's fair to say that NYU can expect that it will not be business as usual following that. There is going to be a lot of disruption on campus and we are going to having an action on that day, the details of which are being worked our right now."

By JoAnne Powers

A new report from the Center for Health Workforce Studies in Albany confirms that registered nurses in the state of New York are persistantly in short supply. The nursing shortage in New York reflects a similar trend in nursing nationwide.

Nancy Webber of the New York State Nurses Association says that the nursing shortage is the direct result of poor working conditions, including mandatory overtime and poor nurse-to-patient ratios:

Tape (0:18) "Not only were they being forced sometimes to work overtime without any warning, they were feeling that they were in danger of losing their licenses or being sued for malpractice if they were not able to provide the care that patients needed. It's not only the nurses that are suffering, if you will, but I think patients are as well."

Rabbi Michael Feinberg heads the Greater New York Labor Religious Coalition, working every day on various campaigns to support workers. Feinberg says how workers are treated in society is a moral issue.

[Rabbi Michael Feinberg]: "A big part of what we're trying to do is educate both the religious community and the community at large that morality is not reserved to issues about sexuality or marriage but public morality issues really deal with availability of living wage jobs, of health care, of social security - the kind of broad public policy issues we're involved with are really moral issues."

New York's Public Employee Federation will rally at the state capitol June 8th in support of four accountability bills dealing with privatization of state services. Federations spokesperson Darcy Wells.

[Darcy Wells 1] : "One bill would require a cost benefit analysis before the state contracts out state services, another would require state agencies to disclose the cost and number of their contract employees, he third would increase the accountability of state authorities and off-budget shadow industries and the last one would restrict lobbyists from influencing the awarding of state contracts."

Communications Workers of America District 1 will be making some serious noise at a meeting of Citizens Communications Company over an incredible $80 million golden parachute severance for former CEO Leonard Tow. CWA's Suman (Shoe-mon) Ray.

{Ray 1] : "I think what we're really doing is alleging that these directors violated their fiduciary duty here."

Ray says CWA wants an investigation.

[Ray 2] : "Shareholders, public pension funds that invest in these companies, state attorney generals. We would like them to investigate this. We are going to raise this issue with New York state Attorney General Elliot Spitzer."

A bus strike in Westchester, New York has been going on for more than 40 days with little headway. The Transport Workers Union is seeking to share health care costs with Liberty Lines Transit and to ensure that employees get all of the benefits they deserve at a reasonable retirement age. The Westchester legislature stepped in yesterday, ordering the two sides back to the bargaining table. Nick Unger, spokesperson for the union says his side has been willing to sit down for more than a month:

[Unger1]: We've been willing to sit down since the other side decided they had nothing to say.