By Doug Cunningham

The Urban Agenda’s JoAnne Derwin says her group is working closely in New York City with unions to create green jobs, including in affordable housing construction and green retrofitting of buildings.

[Derwin]: “With the need to respond to climate change, what we need to do is seize that opportunity in order to create good, green-collar jobs. What we have been doing is working with unionized contractors to get them certified so that they're qualified to bid on that work.”

Urban Agenda is honoring Ray Pacino, a Vice-President of the Laborers International Union of North America. Derwin says he's influential in helping the laborers develop new markets like the 1-6 family affordable housing unit market.

A tentative agreement has been reached between Bloomingdale's Manhattan store and workers represented by the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union. Last week the 2,000 workers authorized strike action if an agreement could not be reached. The two sides plan to negotiate for two more weeks on health benefits, but will ratify the rest of the contract today.

By Doug Cunningham

Helmets To Hardhats is a union program helping veterans get into skilled construction trades. G. Natasha Zoe is one of the few women in the program. Zoe says Helmets to Hardhats allows vets to interview with unions to find the right trade.

[Zoe]: "I love the fact that the unions are patriotic and support their vets. This is just one of many ways that the unions honor the vets and the sacrifice that they make for their country."

Zoe is retired from the Marine Corps. She's getting her Helmets To Hardhats training in New York City.

By Doug Cunningham

Dr. James Parrot of the Fiscal Policy Institute in New York City, says the growing number of employers who turn to illegal, off-the-books construction employment are hurting both workers and taxpayers in general.

[Parrot]: “This large scale illegal employment of workers translates into large scale shifting of construction costs onto taxpayers and union employers.”

Dr. Parrot says a little over half of New York City’s construction sector is unionized. Union construction offers high standards, strong workers compensation coverage for workers who get hurt on the job, and apprentice programs to raise worker skill and productivity.

Has a New York Times reporter blown the lid off of manhole production in India? Jesse Russell takes a look:

The photographs are stunning. Indian workers forge manholes out of iron standing barefoot, bare-handed, bare-chested, and bare-headed. All that protects the lower half of their bodies is in some cases thin shorts, but often nothing more than a cloth tied like a skirt. These are the conditions for workers making the manholes for Con Edison and New York City’s Department of Environmental Protection. The conditions were discovered when photographer J. Adam Huggins noticed that many of the manholes around New York said "Made in India" and on a trip to the country, he decided to see exactly how they were made. According to the Times report, Con Edison buys 2,750 manhole covers a year from India. Officials commented to the Times that they were surprised by the conditions and that they would “rewrite international contracts to include safety requirements.” When it comes to protective equipment, India’s Factory Safety Act only specifies safety goggles.

By Doug Cunningham

Broadway producers are trying to cut jobs from IATSE Local One and its costing tens of millions of dollars as the stagehands' strike continues. Union spokesman Bruce Cohen.

[Cohen]: “They really think that they can pay less for stage labor than they have in the past. And you really just can’t have a middle class life in the metropolitan area and then find that your employer wants to cut in the neighborhood of 38 percent from your workforce.”

Cohen says producers got greedy and ended talks Sunday but the union is ready to resume talks at any time.

[Cohen2]: “Broadway is a billion dollar a year industry. We’re simply not in a place where we’re going to accept wage cuts so that producers can have more money in their wallets.”

By Doug Cunningham

Broadway producers are trying to cut jobs from IATSE Local One and its costing tens of millions of dollars as the stagehands strike continues. Union spokesman Bruce Cohen.

[Cohen]: “They really think that they can pay less for stage labor than they have in the past. And you really just can’t have a middle class life in the metropolitan area and then find that your employer wants to cut in the neighborhood of 38 percent from your workforce.”

Cohen says producers got greedy and ended talks Sunday but the union is ready to resume talks at any time.

[Cohen2]: “Broadway is a billion dollar a year industry. We’re simply not in a place where we’re going to accept wage cuts so that producers can have more money in their wallets.”

By Doug Cunningham

The International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees says it won’t sign a concessionary labor contract in a time of prosperity for Broadway – a billion dollar industry. The League of American Theaters and Producers met Thursday to talk about the labor issues on Broadway after giving what it said was its last and best offer to the union. The union countered with an offer of its own. There could be a lockout or a strike that would darken Broadway’s theater lights. The stagehands union is meeting Saturday in New York to organize strategy in the event of a lockout.

By Jesse Russell

Executive diners could soon be going without lunch if workers for Aramark follow through with strike action. Workers in the cafeterias for companies including CBS and Goldman Sachs and also at the United Nations, could join a strike as their contracts expire over the next few months if the company doesn’t commit to improvements concerning wages, health care, and retirement. Currently, workers at Citigroup and New York Life have already approved strike action if necessary.

By Jesse Russell

New Yorkers could be looking at another long wait for cab riders as the taxi drivers eye a second strike. Jesse Russell reports:

There are varying reports of the success of the previous New York Taxi driver strike, but one thing is for sure, riders had longer wait times. The New York Daily News is reporting that the Taxi Workers Alliance could be planning a second strike before October 1. The reason quoted by the paper is that City Hall has refused to meet with the drivers since the first walk out. October 1 is the deadline for cabs to install a new Global Positioning System that will track where they go and allow for credit card use. Cabbies are calling the tracking system an invasion of privacy and are upset that they will be forced to pay an average credit card transaction fee of 5 percent.

New York City cabbies are fighting back against what they see as an invasion of privacy.

By Jesse Russell

That was a New York City taxi driver speaking at a rally this morning. She was one of many drivers who put her cab in park and kept it there as they protest new GPS technology that could track a cab's whereabouts around the Big Apple. Also launching a cab strike today for similar reasons are the cabs in Philidelphia. While New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg says that most cabs are still running in his city with very little impact,in Philadelphia it is another story. Ron Blount of Philly's Taxi Workers Alliance said that about 90 percent of cab drivers are taking part in the 48 hour strike.

By Jesse Russell

A strike by New York City’s 13,000 taxi drivers could be less than 24 hours away. The New York Taxi Workers Alliance reiterated plans for a 48-hour strike on Sunday and added that “an overwhelming majority” of cab drivers in the city have vowed to take part. New York cab drivers are independent contractors and they are upset with plans to install GPS software in cabs that can track their location. They are calling it an invasion of privacy. In addition to tracking the cabs, drivers are concerned the new devices could cut into fare time as they have to log-in each time they start a new fare. The strike is scheduled to start at 5 a.m. Wednesday morning.

By Doug Cunningham

When New York City’s Mass Transit Authority refused to bargain in good faith and attacked the pensions of transport Workers Union Local100 members, the union went on strike in December of 2005. The MTA had billions in surplus dollars but still tried to cut pensions and health care benefits. The courts found the union violated New York’s Taylor law, which barred them from legally striking. A heavy fine of $2.5 million was imposed. Dues are the lifeblood of unions and are often paid through automatic payroll checkoffs. The courts ended that automatic checkoff to punish the union for daring to defend working family pensions. TWU Local 100 Secretary Treasurer Ed Watt.

By Doug Cunningham

Lou Colletti, President of New York City’s Building Trades Employer Association, is a business spokesperson who believes strongly in unions and the benefits they provide not only to workers but to businesses as skilled and safe employees.

[Colletti]: “I believe very strongly in the union movement and what it means to the backbone of this country."

Colletti says recently uncovered scandals in NYC housing projects built by non-union contractors demonstrate the value of using union contractors for construction projects.

[Colletti]: “We have standards and in many respects when we're building a job there are two sets of eyes - the eyes of the contractor who wants to comply with the law, and the eyes of the union who won't let us violate the law if we're even thinkin' about doin' it."

By Doug Cunningham

Helmets to Hardhats is an apprenticeship program started in New York City in 2003 that helps military veterans, active duty personnel and reservists to find good union jobs after they leave the service. Helmets To Hardhats’ Anne Trinkl says it’s an excellent way to reward and honor those who serve the country by helping transition them into solid middle class and higher jobs in the construction industry.

[Trinkl]: “After the service that these young men and women have provided to our country we feel as an industry that it's only right that they be rewarded with an opportunity to become the middle class or higher of the country."

By Doug Cunningham

Dust from 9/11 caused the death of civil rights lawyer Felicia Dunn-Jones, according to the New York Medical Examiner. It’s the first proven death from exposure to 9/11 dust. Thousands of workers and first responders were exposed to the toxic dust and are still suffering health problems.

By Doug Cunningham

Good, middle-class jobs for New York City residents. That’s the goal as labor unions, industry and government came together for a recent conference called Creating Futures, sponsored by the United Federation of Teachers. It’s an effort to coordinate funding, worker friendly legislation, education and economic development to make sure the estimated 750,000 jobs created in the next twenty years are living wage jobs.

By Doug Cunningham

[Petra Velez]: “May Day is international labor day. That's why we celebrating the contribution of the working people. We're asking the politicians, you know, to support the immigrant workers."

Petra Velez is a New York City garment worker and heads the Executive Board of the New York metro area Joint Board of UNITE-HERE. In New York City UNITE-HERE is rallying today for immigrant worker rights.

[Velez 2]: “Some of the immigrants, you know, are here illegally and some of the immigrants are legal here. But sometimes they have no rights. They don't want to give them rights. And that's why we are fighting for them."

By Doug Cunningham

Labor Voices 3 is a conference that starts Thursday in New York City to explore how to develop a national labor media strategy that will help strengthen the labor movement. Conference Co-Chair Marty Fishgold says that labor so far has failed to build a strong national media network.

[Fishgold 1]: “The unions have not developed a media network, a national media network for workers, that has reached into the communities where they are trying to organize."

When John Sweeney was elected president of the AFL-CIO in 1995, Fishgold says, the labor federation had lots of money to spend on media.

Organized labor has held a strong front against Wal-Mart’s attempts to open a store in New York City. On Tuesday CEO Lee Scott told the New York Times that he no longer felt moving into the city is worth it. Jesse Russell reports:

Organized labor is stopping short of calling Wal-Mart CEO Lee Scott’s comments to the New York Times a victory. On Tuesday the big wig of the world’s largest retailer said he doesn’t “care” if the company ever opens a store in New York City and said the effort to break in has been expensive and exasperating. Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union President Stuart Applebaum said he is pleased with Scott’s comments: