A Nevada man with a grudge against the NFL burst into an exclusive Park Avenue office building where the league has its offices Monday evening and began spraying bullets from an assault rifle, killing four people and critically injuring a fifth.
The shooter, identified as Shane Tamura, a 27-year-old Las Vegas resident with a history of mental health issues, then killed himself, Eric Adams and Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said Monday night.
The officer, Didarul Islam, 36, was off-duty but in uniform on paid detail doing security work when Tamura stormed into the building and started shooting, hitting Islam in the back. Islam was taken to NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital on Manhattan’s Upper East Side where he was pronounced dead.
Security officer Aland Etienne, a member of 32BJ SEIU, was among those killed, the labor union said.
Wesley LePatner, a senior managing director at Blackstone, which has offices in the building, was also killed, the company confirmed.
The Rudin family, which owns the building and Rudin Management, said in a statement that one
See SHOOTING, page 7
MTA blames vendor transition for workers comp payment delays
The president of
BY CRYSTAL LEWIS clewis@thechiefleader.com
Postal service workers assembled in Midtown Manhattan last week to oppose a proposal to privatize the United States Postal Service.
President Trump has pushed for the privatization of the USPS, citing financial reasons. USPS reported a $9.5 billion loss in Fiscal Year 2024. In February, Wells Fargo Equity Research sent a report to investors detailing how privatizing the USPS would result in prices increasing by 30 to 140 percent and the closure of local post offices, leaving valuable real estate for sale. The report noted that USPS workers, 86 percent of whom are unionized, would also face layoffs. “Should USPS be privatized, it is likely that there will be less job security amid inevitable loss of union protections, loss of pension benefits, higher healthcare costs and employee/wage restructuring,” the document states.
Members of the American Postal Workers Union and other union advocates gathered outside of a Wells Fargo branch at Seventh Avenue near 39th Street in Midtown last Thursday to protest the company’s reported effort to cash in on the pri-
vatization of the postal service.
“You’re here sending a message to the entire country that the U.S. mail is not for sale, and this is truly a struggle between Wall Street and Main Street. Wells Fargo wants to steal what belongs to the people of the country,” said APWU President Mark Dimondstein, who represents more than 200,000 USPS employees across the country.
“Here we are at 250 years and Wall Street wants to kill us,” the union leader added, alluding to the number of years the country’s postal system has operated.
Kimberly Karol, president of the American Postal Workers Union in Iowa, came out to speak out against
the privatization plan.
“I represent a rural state. My state, our economy is 80 percent agriculture. And I can tell you, the work [for mail carriers] is really hard and it requires a great deal of distance between communities,” she said. “So where you guys can walk a few blocks, we walk miles. And the unfortunate thing is, it’s not profitable to provide services in rural communities or places that are remotely located.” Karol fears that postal service for Americans living in rural areas would be greatly diminished if privatization occurred. “One in five Americans live in a rural environment. Universal service is some-
‘No other government agency has a higher rating than us.’
— Charles Smith, THE FIRST VICE-PRESIDENT OF THE NATIONAL LETTER CARRIERS ASSOCIATION
“As
especially this large, we learn early lessons on how we can work with Sedgwick and our labor partners,” Crichlow said at the meeting. “It’s regrettable that this happened but it’s our goal to make sure to get it right and not to have the issue happen again.”
The MTA moved all management for workers compensation claims to
See TWU, page 6
thing that we must do everything we possibly can do to preserve. For one in five Americans, it’s going to be extremely detrimental,” she said.
‘We’re together on this’
Charles Smith, the first vice-president of the National Letter Carriers Association, which represents about 205,000 USPS letter carriers who deliver in cities, also said thwat those who would be the most hurt by privatization would be customers.
“When they privatize, the postage stamp will be higher in certain areas. In certain areas where they can’t make the money, they won’t deliver five days a week where we deliver five days a week, whether in the rain, sleet or snow,” he explained. “We’re going to fight like hell. We deliver the last mile, but we’re all together on this.” He noted the relative esteem the
See USPS, page 7
Officer Didarul Islam.
‘Upset’ with tentative contract’s terms, Legal Aid attorneys urge ‘no’ vote
Say union negotiators ‘missed the moment’
BY DUNCAN FREEMAN dfreeman@thechiefleader.com
Frustration reigns among the workforce at the Legal Aid Society.
The union representing more than 1,000 workers at the Legal Aid Society announced a tentative agreement with management July 23 without having had to resort to a work stoppage. Members of Legal Aid Society Attorneys United are voting on the agreement this week, but citing inadequate raises, a poorly executed bargaining strategy and the possibility of winning a better contract through a strike, many are urging their union colleagues to reject the pact.
“I am of the opinion that our bargaining committee was more dedicated to averting a strike than it was to settling a contract on the best terms possible no matter what,” Jack Sorensen, a staff attorney at the Legal Aid Society and member of LASAU said last week. “It just kind of feels like we squandered this opportunity, but the good news is we can still vote to not ratify this contract. We’re hoping for 51 percent of our members to vote no, which will put our bargaining committee in a position to move forward and secure the wins that they have a mandate from the membership to secure.”
‘Failed to meet the moment’ Attorneys, paralegals and support staff at over a dozen legal advocacy organizations across the city who belong to the Association of Legal Advocates and Attorneys aligned their contracts to expire this summer. Most units have reached tentative agreements that ended ongoing strikes or staved off impending walkouts, pending ratification by full union membership. Strikes at the Goddard Riverside Law Project, CAMBA Legal Services and the Urban Justice Center are ongoing, but after walkouts lasting several days, workers at New York Legal Assistance Group, Bronx Defenders and other organizations netted agreements with raises close to the union’s goals.
But workers at the Legal Aid Society have watched as their union colleagues have won desired raises, workload protections and more following walkouts that ground some courts to a halt. Sorensen, who works in the Bronx, said that the strike at the Bronx Defenders forced his supervisors to take on work that striking attorneys vacated, and convinced him of the power that he and his colleagues could exercise — and the concessions that they could wring from management – if they went out on strike.
But that strike never happened, and LASAU members have been peppering colleagues on the bargaining committee with questions and expressing their discontent in emails, online forums and, workers said, a union-wide town hall meeting on Monday. The mood in the ALAA’s group email chain drastically changed from joking about the lavish spending of managers a week ago to members sharing denunciations of the LASAU bargaining committee and pleading with their colleagues to reject the agreement, according to screenshots shared with The Chief. Under the tentative agreement, salaries of Legal Aid Society attorneys, who are currently the highest paid in the sector, would be surpassed by the salaries of workers at three oth-
er smaller organizations this year. Around 280 workers at NYLAG just reached a tentative agreement after five days on strike and the gap in salaries between LAS attorneys and those at NYLAG would grow in the next two fiscal years if both agreements are ratified.
According to the tentative agreement, the LAS attorneys would get raises of 3 percent and 1.5 percent in fiscal years 2027 and 2028, respectively, while those at NYLAG would get 3.5 percent both years in a deal that will be voted on next week.
“When I found out about [the tentative agreement] I was really disappointed. I thought the salaries were really low, I thought membership was ready to escalate,” said Ignacia Lolas Ojeda, a staff attorney in the Legal Aid Society’s parole revocation defense unit. “I think the bargaining committee failed to meet the moment.”
Deadline delayed
Lolas Ojeda first worried the union’s bargaining committee had run into trouble in early July when, she said, members of the committee stopped communicating with the contract action team, of which Lolas Ojeda is a member. That team’s goal was to organize and prepare workers for a strike. But about three
weeks ago, “the bargaining committee just completely cut us out, they just completely stopped communicating with us,” Lolas Ojeda said.
That was just after workers authorized a strike with 91 percent support and rallied outside of the Legal Aid Society’s lower Manhattan office in a historic show of force.
The union’s leadership set a strike deadline for July 25, a week after the contract’s July 18 expiration date which itself was over two weeks after its initial expiration date. Workers said the delay tempered the momentum they had built, including during a rowdy July 15 rally with Attorney General Letitia James and Assemblymember Zohran Mamdani.
“There was a lot of momentum for us to go on strike,” said Alexis DiCarlo, a staff attorney who plans to vote no on the tentative agreement. “We should’ve gone on strike on July 18th.”
Jane Fox, the unit chair of LASAU and a member of the bargaining committee, did not reply to a request for a response to union members’ concerns. But a United Auto Workers official provided The Chief with a statement from Fox in which the union leader said she was “proud to present this contract to our members to vote on.” Fox cited “historic gains” on workload protections, a student loan fund, 20 weeks of parental leave and retiree health benefits. But she expressed frustration with the financial aspects of the deal, saying the union was “fundamentally left behind by Mayor Adams and our employers on salaries and pensions.”
“Our members will vote on this contract [this] week, but regardless if they do vote it up or down, we won a reopener guaranteeing no matter what, we will be back to win the salaries and pensions we deserve next year,” she said. That reopener clause, which could allow the union to bargain over wages next year, has become a key aspect for meticulous members looking for reasons to support the agreement. Bronx Defenders’ strike this month occurred only because the union took advantage of a reopener clause tucked into their still-active contract, allowing them to make a wage proposal this year,
which management rejected.
Ratifying a contract this year that includes a reopener clause with the ability to strike could mean that Legal Aid Society workers would join other ALAA units with expiring contracts next year and fight for a wage increase in a fashion similar to how the Bronx Defenders did this summer. A reopener without a guarantee of the ability to strike could leave workers stuck with contract terms they’re unsatisfied with for the next three years.
“Relying on an opener just speaks to the insulting nature of how much management is giving us and to how little the government is funding us,” said DiCarlo. “Many people are upset by this tentative agreement. I think a lot of people think it was prematurely made. I would not be surprised if 51 percent of membership was not happy with this contract and voted no.”
‘Not over yet’
Twyla Carter, The Legal Aid Society’s attorney-in-chief and CEO, said in a statement when the agreement was announced that because of decades of state and city underfunding, workers’ pay has “not reflected the complexity or importance of their work.”
“While today’s development represents meaningful progress, we know that ensuring fair compensation and lasting support for our mission will require sustained investment from both Albany and City Hall,” she said of the agreement.
“We look forward to partnering with ALAA as a united front in the fight to secure the resources that both honor the vital contributions of our staff attorneys and support the long-term sustainability of a career at Legal Aid.”
Smaller town halls have been held in several departments within the Legal Aid Society within the last week, workers said. The ratification vote is being held Wednesday and Thursday. Sorensen has already made his decision on how to vote.
“Everybody understands there were missteps made and where we go from now is we have to not ratify this contract so we can get back to the bargaining table,” he said. “It’s not over yet.”
Unions slam cancellation of Colbert ‘Late Show’ as politically motivated
BY CRYSTAL LEWIS clewis@thechiefleader.com
The cancellation of “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” is no laughing matter for the union crews who help put the late-night satirical program on the air. CBS’ decision, announced July 17, is expected to affect hundreds of writers, stagehands and other staffers who work at “The Late Show” when it goes off the air next May. Unions representing staff who work the show have decried the cancellation as a move to limit free speech. Although CBS stated that its decision to end “The Late Show” was “purely financial,” many believed the cancellation was for political reasons. Just days before the cancellation, Colbert criticized a $16
million settlement reached between Paramount, CBS’ parent company, and President Trump over a “60 Minutes” interview with then-Vice President Kamala Harris.
Colbert has frequently taken aim against Trump. The president celebrated the cancellation of “The Late Show,” writing on Truth Social that “I absolutely love that Colbert got fired. His talent was even less than his ratings. I hear Jimmy Kimmel is next. Has even less talent than Colbert!”
“The Late Show” is far and away the highest-rated late night talk show and has been for several years running.
Robert Suttmann, the president of the American Federation of Musicians Local 802, raised concerns about how the show’s cancellation
will impact not just live musicians and other employees working on the television program, but also free speech.
“The cancellation of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert without clear explanation is deeply concerning and raises serious questions about the broader implications for free expression and artistic freedom,” he said in a statement released last Friday. “Live music has been an integral part of late-night shows for decades – serving as a vital platform for musicians to reach audiences, showcase their artistry, and participate in cultural dialogue. Colbert’s cancellation threatens not only the livelihoods of the worldclass musicians who perform on the show, it also undermines the fundamental principles of free speech
and creative expression that are cornerstone values of our industry and our nation.”
Sutterman noted that Trump has warned TV networks NBC and ABC that their late night hosts will be next. “This is why it is vital for NBC and ABC to state, loudly and clearly, that they will not allow themselves to be similarly intimidated,” he said. “Now, more urgently than ever, is a time for courage, not cowardice.”
“CBS’s decision is about much more than just a late night talk show. When an administration tries to silence criticism and dissent by asserting its power, we all need to take notice,” he added. “Local 802 stands by our members and also in solidarity with our sisters and brothers in labor who work on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. We will take whatever steps are necessary to protect our workers.”
Colbert was named host of “The Late Show” in 2015 following the departure of David Letterman. Latenight TV programming has experienced a ratings decline in recent years. Still, “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” had 2.42 million viewers during the second quarter,
according to Nielsen.
The Writers Guild of America also argued that the show’s cancellation was politically motivated. The union represents 23 writers on “The Late Show.”
“The Writers Guild of America calls on New York State Attorney General Letitia James, no stranger to prosecuting Trump for illegal business practices, to join California and launch an investigation into potential wrongdoing at Paramount,” the union wrote in a statement. “We call on our elected leaders to hold those responsible to account, to demand answers about why this beloved program was canceled and to assure the public that Colbert and his writers were not censored due to their views or the whims of the President.”
It continued, “In the meantime, the Writers Guild of America will support our members at The Late Show with Stephen Colbert and across the late-night industry as they speak truth to power and we will explore all potential legal and political avenues to fight for our members in the aftermath of this decision.”
Duncan Freeman / The Chief
Members of Legal Aid Society Attorneys United rallied on July 1. The union’s bargaining committee reached a tentative agreement with management that many workers are now advocating to reject.
Cops could get more childcare options
Gillibrand legislation would kickstart pilot
BY RICHARD KHAVKINE richardk@thechiefleader.com
Noting that finding and paying for childcare is among the most challenging aspects of life as a police officer and a significant predicament for would-be applicants to the job, Senator Kirsten Gillibrand has introduced legislation that would expand the availability of childcare for officers.
The New York Democrat cited increasing recruitment difficulties as among the reasons for her bill, which would kickstart a federally funded pilot program to help provide childcare for officers with minor children. It also would give police departments access to grants to help them establish childcare for uniformed personnel.
“This is about protecting and supporting our law enforcement,” she said last week at Elmira City Hall. “Because they face so many challenges in their work lives every day: the long hours, the non-traditional work schedules. Unexpected overtime can take an enormous toll not
just on them, but also on their families.”
Gillibrand’s bill, cosponsored in the Senate by North Carolina Republican Thom Tillis, would allocate $24 million for each of the next five fiscal years to fund grants to law enforcement agencies to either help them establish childcare programs or to partner with existing providers.
Gillibrand cited results from a 2024 survey by the International Association of Chiefs of Police that found more than 70 percent of law enforcement agencies reporting that recruitment was more difficult than it was five years prior.
It is unclear how many NYPD cops are parents of minor children since the department doesn’t track data “to that level of specificity,” according to a spokesperson. The NYPD has been buffeted by both recruiting challenges and significant numbers of retirements and departures in recent years. The department’s uniformed headcount stood at 33,740 in mid-July, the fewest since 1994.
Among the possible enhancements to recruiting efforts cited by IACP survey’s respondents was increased financial support for child-
Thousands of NJ’s 9/11 first responders are again eligible for disability benefits
2021 expiration of deadline shut out cops, firefighters, others
BY RICHARD KHAVKINE richardk@thechiefleader.com
Thousands of New Jersey’s 9/11 responders shut out of World Trade Center-related disability benefits because they did not meet a filing deadline have a chance to reapply for the retirement allowances.
New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy last week signed into law legislation expanding existing statute by removing that 2021 filing deadline for some members and retirees of the state’s public-sector retirement systems, making them eligible to file for and eventually receive the benefits.
The initial law, passed in 2019, established a deadline for the workers to apply for the retirement allowance but they and their advocates argued that they were not adequately notified of the deadlines. The state sent just a single postcard to eligible recipients notifying them and otherwise relied on an understated web posting, advocates said.
The original Bill Ricci Act allowed members of the New Jersey’s Police and Firemen’s Retirement System, its Police Retirement System and its Public Employees’ Retirement System who had or would contract a permanent and total disability because of their participation in the rescue, recovery or cleanup operations through Oct. 11, 2001, to file for accidental disability retirement allowances.
The act is named for a Clifton, New Jersey, firefighter who retired in 2019 after contracting lung disease attributable to his time at ground zero.
But the filing deadline expired in July 2021, excluding thousands who otherwise could have been eligible.
Unions’ ‘collective advocacy’
The bill gives retirees who filed an eligibility registration form with their retirement system but were denied because the deadline had passed the ability to petition their retirement system’s board for reconsideration.
“This is a powerful moment. With the stroke of a pen, Governor Murphy has thankfully delivered justice and protections to thousands of New Jersey’s first responders who risked their own health and wellbeing to provide mutual aid on and after 9/11,” Michael Barasch, Ricci’s lawyer and a 9/11 legal advocate, said in a statement.
“These first responders didn’t hesitate to cross the river, they just went. Today, New Jersey said: ‘We see you. We remember you. And we will take care of you.’ This is what it means to Never Forget 9/11. This is what real leadership looks like for 9/11 Heroes,” Barasch added.
The bill requires the requisite retirement system boards to notify all of its members of the legislation’s provisions by letter within 60
care for officers, something Gillibrand said.
“Offering childcare is a powerful recruitment tool and an important retention tool, and it’s an essential way to promote public safety while maintaining a stable law enforcement workforce,” Gillibrand said. “It’s certainly not the only tool in the toolbox, but it’s an important one and it;s powerful one that we shouldn’t ignore.”
Elmira Police Chief Kristen Thorne agreed the legislation would help with recruitment.
“In my experience, shift work while having children of an age where there’s a need of childcare is very taxing,” he said.
Thorne noted that cops are often called to work at all hours to attend to “collateral duties a lot of officers have,” such as SWAT or detective call-outs in the middle of the night.
“The access to childcare would be an incentive for officers to put in for some of these collateral duties where our pool of officers would widen allowing us to choose the best
officers for these positions internally,” Thorne said.
Could expand to other occupations
Gillibrand noted that the issue disproportionately affects women.
According to the Policing Project at NYU School of Law, women make up less than 14 percent of local and state cops and 20 percent of recruits.
A 2019 Department of Justice report noted that the availability of childcare within law enforcement agencies “a highly under-researched area.” An executive with one major metro police department is quoted in the report as saying that “Day care is the No. 1 thing they talk about.”
The DOJ report also noted that research shows that female officers might not pursue promotion for a number of reasons, among them “a lack of structured support for maintaining a personal life and raising children while handling the demands of a policing career.”
Gillibrand has said the issue of
childcare has been among the most pressing concerns raised during her meetings with police officers over the last few years.
Noting that certain jobs need 24/7 availability from their workers, Gillibrand said she began a similar legislative effort designed for armed forces personnel. She noted that the current effort is geared toward policing because of the profession’s increasing difficulty in attracting applicants, who by definition are younger and starting families. But being new to the job, they often must work shifts that are least conducive to finding accessible childcare.
“So we want to do this specifically for law enforcement, but I can imagine if this worked we would also do it for EMTs, we would do it for firefighters, we would do it for nurses, other first responders and critical-care workers who are on the front lines, who don’t get to pick their hours but we need them to work,” she said. “So ideally we would expand this idea to all critical-care workers.”
days of the governor’s signature.
It is unclear from the legislation or its accompanying fiscal estimate how many current or retired workers are eligible to apply for the benefits.
More than 15,000 New Jersey responders and other survivors, the second-most after New York State, are enrolled with the 9/11 World Trade Center Health Program, which provides medical monitoring and treatment of WTC-related health conditions for 9/11 responders and survivors.
The New Jersey Office of Legislative Services’ determined the annual increased cost of the bill to the state at between $86,500 and $159,000. The annual cost increases allocated to all municipalities whose employers are enrolled in the Police and Firemen’s Retirement Systems is estimated at between $91,500 to $300,000, with the cost depending on the number of affected employees. Lawmakers in both legislative chambers passed the bill June 30.
The Professional Firefighters Association of New Jersey, which represents more than 5,000 active and retired IAFF firefighters, EMS and support service members statewide, said the vote reflected “a group effort.” The union thanked the New Jersey Firefighters’ Mutual Benevolent Association, the New Jersey State Police Benevolent Association, the State Troopers Fraternal Association of New Jersey and the New Jersey Fraternal Order of Police “for their collective advocacy and determination.”
“This accomplishment is a true example of what can be achieved when all public safety unions work together for a common goal,” the organization posted on social media following the lawmakers’ vote.
A retired Jersey City police officer, Valerie Velazquez-Stetz, who toiled at ground zero in the aftermath of the attacks for several days and subsequently contracted a cancer traced to her time there, called the legislation’s enactment justice served.
“Today, after years of pounding the pavement, for the Forgotten 9/11 Heroes … we finally broke through, Velazquez-Stetz, who campaigned hard for the bill’s expansion, said in a statement. “The Ricci Act expansion isn’t just policy, it’s justice, echoing through every hallway of power in New Jersey. And we made it happen!”
Courtesy of WallyGobbetz via @wallyg, Flickr Downtown Manhattan the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, photographed from Jersey City.
Senator Kirsten Gillibrand
Senator Kirsten Gillibrand and Elmira Police Chief Kristen Thorne at Elmira City Hall during the senator’s announcement of legislation that would increase childcare options for police.
COMMENTARY COMMENTARY COMMENTARY
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
A vote for youth
To The ediTor:
Zohran Mamdani’s primary victory marked the second time young New York City voters sent a message to the political establishment. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s takedown of Democratic party boss Joe Crowley in 2018 was the first salvo. What both AOC and now Mamdani proved is that having a big name and even bigger bankroll doesn’t necessarily translate to victory; a big vision matters far more. Voters, particularly younger voters, are demanding to be heard and to be taken seriously. They reject candidates who are entrenched in the past and yearn for elected officials who speak to the issues they care about — affordability, real economic opportunity and a clean, healthy environment. Many young folks I have spoken with say they are jaded by politics; many don’t vote because they don’t feel represented by those in office. That is, until an AOC or Mamdani connects with them.
The Democratic party needs to pay attention; “rose garden” campaigns no longer work. America’s youth wants accessible leaders, people who walk among them and listen as well as they orate. The U.S. population has nearly tripled since the number of House of Representative members was capped at 435 in 1929; with each passing day, a single voter holds a smaller and smaller share of members’ attention. Younger Americans recognize the diminishing influence each voter holds and they want something done about it.
I don’t know which Democrats will run in 2028, but I believe if the primary produces a 60+ year-old from the party establishment, that person will lose.
Joseph Cannisi Dissent
To The ediTor: The Municipal Labor Committee is at a crossroads. With the retirement of Chair Harry Nespoli, there is a power vacuum. Having operated with secrecy and unaccountability, his successor has a chance to pursue democratic reforms. Executive Vice Chair Michael Mulgrew might not be suitable. He has taken a page from the authoritarian playbook.
Similar to the purge at federal agencies — firing perceived enemies of Trump — Mulgrew has dis-
missed six union staffers who were open rivals or suspected critics. Among them is Amy Arundell, his challenger in the recent UFT election.
Marianne Pizzitola, the president of the New York City Organization of Public Service Retirees, warned: “These actions are antiunion, undermining the democratic principles of the union by silencing dissent and consolidating power.”
Co-Chair Henry Garrido had also embraced Trumpian tactics. Just as the president has threatened to “primary” any member of Congress not supporting his agenda, Garrido had vowed to withdraw political support or oppose any City Councilperson who supports legislation that would preserve retiree health benefits. It should be noted that Mulgrew’s and Garrido’s unions have used their political action funds, partially paid by retirees’ voluntary contributions, to lobby against both city and state legislation that would codify their health benefits. This was confirmed by public records from the City Clerk’s Lobbying Bureau and the New York State Commission on Ethics and Lobbying in Government. Retirees would do well by cancelling those deductions from pension checks and alternatively donate the dollars to the Organization of Public Service Retirees.
NYCOPSR has our interests at heart. Our former unions certainly don’t.
Harry Weiner
The writer is a member of the Council of Municipal Retiree Organizations
Dis-establishment
To The ediTor:
As far as the Democratic Party establishment is concerned, Zohran Mamdani’s striking victory in the Democratic Primary for mayor is more of a threat than an opportunity for the party to rethink what it stands for, and how it can counter our destructive, authoritarian president and his MAGA-obedient Republican Party.
Mamdani is a democratic socialist, a term that has a variety of different versions and definitions dating back to the 19th century. They include a fair, equal and just society in which an economic elite doesn’t hold a concentration of wealth and power with a disproportionate effect on policies carried out by elected politicians.
The Mamdani campaign focused
WORK RULES by Barbara Smaller
on affordability for millions of struggling New Yorkers, as well as an increase in taxes on the wealthy and the corporations. He received more votes than any other candidate, defeating Andrew Cuomo by double digits. This was all the more remarkable since the disgraced former governor’s Super PAC, “Fix the City,” funded by plutocrats from both political parties, spent $25 million, most of it on attack ads against Mamdani.
The political establishment has claimed that the agenda of a democratic socialist will destroy the city by driving out the rich and businesses. Ironically, the gross inequality evident in New York City, created by the city’s guardians of privilege, has driven out working-class and middle-class New Yorkers who find the city unaffordable.
After the June 24 primary a number of major unions, including District Council 37, the United Federation of Teachers and 1199SEIU, endorsed Mamdani. By contrast, more than five weeks later, just four of the 12 members of the Democratic House delegation from New York have endorsed him. Nor have there been any endorsements from Governor Hochul, Senators Chuck
Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand, and U.S. Representative Hakeem Jeffries.
Howard Elterman
Satire got serious
To The ediTor:
“The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” is scheduled to end in May 2026, supposedly because of the high cost of the show. But if Colbert keeps up his brilliant and funny attacks on Donald Trump, I don’t think Colbert and “The Late Show” will be around for even one month.
When Trump cheered the departure of “The Late Show,” Colbert looked right into the camera and told Trump, “F—k you!” Colbert mocked CBS for paying Trump’s “extortion” of CBS, which is owned by Paramount Global, for alleged deceptive editing of a Kamala Harris interview, and suddenly Colbert and “The Late Show” will be cancelled. The cause and effect seem to be obvious.
Will Trump and CBS allow Colbert to mock our malignant liar of a president from now until May, 2026? Doubtful! Paramount will probably show Colbert the door very quickly
unless they (surprisingly) decide to stand up to Trump.
Michael J. Gorman
Bats, sticks and stones
To The ediTor: Regarding “List? What list?” (Letter, The Chief, July 25): The word “Indian” was coined by Christopher Columbus, who thought he had discovered India. The Cleveland Indians were possibly named after Louis Sockalexis, a Penobscot who played for them in the 19th century, The author overlooks that “offensive” (and by inference racist) Cleveland cracked the American League color line in 1947, only the second team in history to do so. Further research reveals that “Indians” generally wasn’t considered offensive but the Chief Wahoo symbol on the uniforms was. Similarly, the name “Redskins” is inconclusive as to being racist. Also, the Cleveland Indians — tragically, tangentially and arguably — saved Major League baseball. Their shortstop
See LETTERS, page 5
Delivering universal after-school care for working families
BY ERIC ADAMS
Eric Adams is mayor of New York City.
Working-class families deserve nothing less than a hard-working administration that puts their needs first. And when it comes to childcare and after-school programming, this administration has listened to the parents of this city and taken meaningful action to support children and make life more affordable for them. For too long, too many families have been denied access to affordable childcare, including options for young children and after-school programming. Families have struggled due to high costs, forcing them to make hard choices between working to put bread on the table and taking care of their kids, and some have even had to leave the city they love. Parents deserve better, and our administration is delivering for them. We know that learning doesn’t end when the school bell rings at the end of the day. That is why, earlier this year, we announced the goal of achieving universal after-school by creating 20,000 additional K-5 after-school seats for New York City Public School students by the start
of the 2027 school year. Last week, we took another step in delivering on that promise with our first batch of 5,000 new after-school seats for this upcoming school year. We are investing an additional $21 million this school year alone to bring 5,000 new K-5 after-school seats online at 40 schools that never had after-school programming.
Starting this fall, 5,000 children in neighborhoods with the most need will have a safe and nurturing place to go when the school day is over. This means 5,000 students and their parents or guardians who will no longer have to choose between work and taking care of their kids — or worse yet, using an iPad as a babysitter.
Instead, children from working-class families will now have a spot in after-school programs where they can learn and thrive.
These 5,000 new after-school seats mark the first phase of our promise to commit an additional $331 million for 20,000 new after-school seats over the next three school years and will bring the annual budget for universal after-school to $755 million annually, baselined by Fiscal Year 2028.
Baselined means the money will be in the budget forever, as we increase the number of students in after-school programming to 184,000 across our city. That is 184,000 students who will be able to participate in sports, robotics, the arts, field trips and more — discovering their passions and building relationships with their classmates, while their parents know they are in a safe, learning environment. Our after-school expansion will also see us raise the provider rates for the non-profit workforce that takes care of our children every day and who have gone over 10 years without an increase in pay. This means life will become more affordable for not only families, but those taking care of our kids, too.
This work builds on our historic investments in young peo-
ple, including historic funding for Summer Youth Employment and Summer Rising, and increased and baselined funding for 3-K and special education pre-K. Our administration has also driven down the cost of subsidized child care by over 90 percent since we first came into office. Thanks to our efforts, a family earning $55,000 a year went from spending $55 a week on childcare in 2022 to just $4.80 a week today. Additionally, we have introduced a historic child care pilot for children 2 years old and younger that puts New York City on the path to universal childcare for low-income families if the pilot is successful. New York City must be a place where working-class families can afford to live. I know the struggle is real. My mother juggled three jobs just to put food on the table for her six children. Universal after-school and universal child care for low-income families is essential to making sure that every child and every family has the chance to thrive in the greatest city in the world. It takes a city to raise a child, and with universal after-school programming we are ensuring New York City is the best place to raise a family.
Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office
Mayor Eric Adams and pupils from P.S. 20 in Manhattan’s Lower East Side after Adams’ announcement of the ‘After School for All’ program April 29.
COMMENTARY COMMENTARY COMMENTARY
Late night in the wasteland
BY RON ISAAC
If integrity were ever to regain a foothold, so that decisions were made exactly for the stated reasons and not as products of ulterior political calculation, we could conclude that something must have gone awry with the proclivities of government and corporate America, because it was not what we had expected.
That’s clearly true of Big Media.
“The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” was canceled last month. The last show will be in May, and he will not be replaced. Colbert claims he got one day’s notice.
Paramount, the parent company of CBS, insists it was a “purely financial decision,” and rhapsodically poo-poos the notion that the axing was retaliation for Colbert’s relentless, rancorous and tart mocking of President Trump. Some people surmise that Colbert’s act was wearing thin even on his boosters and Colbert’s swiping at his own bosses double sealed his fate.
The dice had already been cast by sensational circumstances.
Paramount stressed that Colbert’s performance and his show’s content were not factors in their “agonizing” decree, and their meticulously crafted press release gushed with “admiration, affection, and respect” for his talents.
Was Paramount doing Trump’s bidding? What could be their motive for ingratiating themselves with the president by silencing Colbert?
It’s because they knew that he could push the kibosh on Paramount’s pending $8 billion merger with Skydance Media.
Paramount was totally within its rights to decapitate Colbert as a blood sacrifice to the presidential ego and market forces. And Colbert, on the chopping block, had some choice words for both his bosses and their shot-calling puppeteers in the shadows.
Reagan, Bush Picks
Hypocrisy On Supreme-Court Choice
Just before official notice, though likely after the decision had likely already been made, Colbert had accused his employer of paying a “big fat bribe” to keep their Skydance deal afloat. He said he was “offended,” and that he knew of nothing that “will repair my trust in this company.”
VINCENT SCALA
Rank may have its privileges, but there’s a limit. We peons know not to cross those boundaries in our workplaces. Colbert was justified in rebuking Paramount, but it’s not surprising that it didn’t sit well with them, and their right to terminate him, whether or not ill-considered, was not compromised by the exercise of his free speech rights.
George Herbert Walker Bush had to replace the first African American, Thurgood Marshall. He looked all over the country and the “most-qualified” was Clarence Thomas, also an African-American? Of course not. Clarence Thomas is an African-American conservative and he got the gig. Expect a Top Candidate sense in this country. We have never had an African-American woman on the court. Biden will not be selecting a cashier from Stop-and-Shop or a pilates instructor from the local sports club. He will select a highly educated, highly credentialed woman who attended a top college, top law school, clerked for a Justice, served on the Federal appellate court and all the other “credentials” deemed necessary in this day and age for a Justice. should be seen for what they are. They are idiotic political theater from a cohort that sees even a tiny effort at progress as threatening the white male position in society.
Was his indignation a pose or a principled outcry? What bribe was he referring to?
Trump had sued CBS and was awarded a $16 million settlement because of their “60 Minutes” broadcast in which their time-honored investigative reporting was tainted by highly partisan editorial manipulation. They had done a surgical patch-up job, doctoring beyond recognition, a potentially ruinous audio clip of former presidential candidate and rival Kamala Harris. No American, regardless of affiliation, should condone it. Their journalistic activism could have swayed the election.
For nine straight seasons, “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” has had the highest viewership in late night television. Dominating the ratings didn’t mean much in a field of competition that was already puny relative to other media. Colbert’s show carries over 200 employees and he himself makes an eye-popping $15 million, which is not bad for the voice of Everyman and the foil of elitists.
His advertising revenue is said to have plummeted to half of what it was seven years ago, and some insiders have said the show is hemorrhaging $50 million annually. Colbert’s wit doesn’t have the currency to offset such a handicap.
According to New York Governor Kathy Hochul, the demise of Colbert’s show will cause collateral damage to hundreds of vendors and production staff for whom loss of livelihood is anything but collateral.
Local commercial establishments, already jittery about the future of the city, will go bust. Hochul noted that CBS was gifted $16 million in grants and tax breaks from the state, as well as $5 million to spruce up the Ed Sullivan Theater, with the understanding Colbert’s show would stay in New York.
Congress has defunded the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (PBS), which was, if not the cornerstone, at least a significant supporting pillar of President Johnson’s “Great Society” legislation in 1967. He likened it to America’s “first telegraph line.”
The slashed $1.1 billion that would have been shared by around 1,500 affiliated radio and television stations over two years, will not be redirected or otherwise absorbed. It was a casualty less of economics, than the “culture wars” we have become habituated to waging.
Conservatives have long nurtured a monomania about what they see as the unmitigated and never repentant progressive bias of NPR and PBS in every area from political and news analysis to natural history to children’s entertainment.
Slate Magazine notes that federal dollars amount to only 15 percent of PBS’s budget and 2 percent of NPR’s, and they “earn ample revenue from corporate sponsorships, viewer donations and special endowments.”
The crux of the government’s action is more ideology-aversion than thrift embrace.
Apologists of CPB hail its core mission of presenting balanced viewpoints, which was fulfilled during the Jurassic era of public broadcasting of William F. Buckley Jr., but you’d have to be unscrupulously naive to keep a poker face and maintain that there is equal time now.
Many people who are applauding the extinction of federal subsidies claim, probably disingenuously, that they are not opposed to its existence, but just to the taxpayers’ throwing it a lifeline. They note that billions of dollars have been harvested by Sesame Street and other CPB franchises, even though obviously they would be hostile to a government bailout, even if CPB were bankrupt.
Why isn’t the city taking care of first responders?
BY STACEY PHEFFER AMATO
New
York
Assemblywoman Stacey Pheffer Amato represents portions of Queens.
I want to say this very loudly: EMS workers save lives. They work in some of the most difficult and stressful conditions and when we have an emergency they come to help us. We call them “street doctors” for a reason.
Yet in an incredibly disappointing move, they aren’t paid the hero salary they deserve. In fact, they’re not even paid a living wage. Instead, it has been almost four years since they’ve had a contract and years without a salary increase. One might think this would be a top priority for Mayor Adams or the New York City Council as this is a service that means life or death.
However, last year the City Council used its time to vote on a new starting salary for Uber and Lyft drivers at $21 an hour; and last week the City Council voted to extend that salary increase to food delivery workers. Guess whose salaries didn’t get raised? Yup, EMS.
While we can all appreciate the need to pay workers a decent salary, I think putting a focus on delivery workers instead of the men and women who come to our aid during an emergency is a bit misguided. This is not meant to be a bashing of delivery workers, after all, my son worked hard during several summers as a food delivery worker.
tions, parity, and respect. This includes A.7356, which sets a minimum staffing requirement so our first responders aren’t alone when responding to a call. And through A.5771, we amended their pension plan so NYC EMS workers can retire after 25 years of heroic service of saving lives — just like some of their other colleagues in similar fields.
I bring this up because actions speak louder than words. For nearly four years the mayor has repeatedly failed to ratify or agree to a new contract. In addition, the City Council has refused to take up any legislation to give them a pay raise. How is that acceptable? There must be something wrong with this system if the chairs of the committees on Fire and Emergency Management, or Health or Public Safety can’t even get any legislation enacted to increase their salaries. I’m disappointed and I’m sure you are too. Our first responders can’t live on a starting salary of $39,386. The question seems to be that if the City Council or this mayoral administration can’t do what’s needed, let alone right, does the state have to step in once again? After all, it was through my legislation on the state level that got our police officers, detectives, sergeants and lieutenants within the NYPD a pay increase (A.5202 from 2024, and A.5376 from 2025 — enacted in the 2024 and 2025 state budget) because the city wouldn’t do anything to address their staffing crisis. If this continues to be ignored then this will have to be addressed when I return to Albany.
Letters to the Editor
Audacity to Criticize Molina
Two senators, Adam Schiff and Elizabeth Warren, and the Writers Guild of America are incensed by the Colbert wacking, and demand an inquiry into a presumptive conspiracy. Regardless of where it leads, Paramount’s decision to sack Colbert, and whatever may have inspired or goaded it, is out of their hands.
To the Editor: On Feb 19, the NY Daily News published an article entitled, “As NYC Correction Commissioner Molina cleans house, critics worry he’s coddling jail unions.”
Perhaps Colbert made his own bed, but definitely market forces are making him lie in it. His anti-Trump, Johnny One-Note shtick had lost much of its luster even among his fans. He was not in the same class as genre predecessors like Jack Paar, Steve Allen, Johnny Carson, Jay Leno, Conan O’Brien, Dick Cavett or Dave Letterman, whom he succeeded.
Listeners of public broadcasting are familiar with these stations’ frequent fundraiser drives, all of which seem to meet their goals at the last minute. There’s one West Coast outlet that has insisted they are at the end of their tether and will take their last gasp and be defunct and off the air by sunset.
But the City Council and mayoral administration’s failure to address this situation has caused us to be in a serious staffing crisis. With some of the lowest numbers of first responders in our city’s history, along with recruitment levels at an all time low, no wonder the average response time for life-threatening medical emergencies is 12.35 minutes in 2025, alarmingly up from 11.87 minutes in 2024.
THE CHIEF-LEADER, FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 2022 FIVE and by deducunder Act mar(MFJ), separately household spouse 2021 the dollar and and 65 and
They’ve been doing this since the 1960s, and their service has been uninterrupted.
Whether it’s a newly elected Mayor, Governor or President, every new administration replaces personnel, notwithstanding their work performance. No reason is needed to remove someone in an appointed position within NYC government with the exception of the Commissioner of the Department of
THE CHIEF-LEADER welcomes letters from its readers for publication. Correspondents must include their names, addresses and phone numbers. Letters should be submitted with the understanding that all correspondence is subject to the editorial judgment of this newspaper. To submit a letter to the editor online, visit thechiefleader.com and click on Letters to the Editor.
Further on the Cancellation Front:
When Colbert pulls up the last cactus in the desert of late-night television next May, will we have to watch classic cartoons, old flicks, vintage cowboy shows and archived variety and quiz programs? Will we be startled to discover that the void was never emptier than when it was filled with mediocrity?
Bronx Assistant District Attorney. He is currently a criminal-defense attorney in New York City and its suburbs.
LISAK
Ray Chapman was killed by a pitch that struck him in the temple. As a result the spitball was outlawed and the ball from that point on had to be white and spotless, allowing Babe Ruth to club home runs and bring fans to the ballpark in the wake of the White Sox scandal. So a team rich in history and important to both baseball and the Civil Rights Movement is named to honor one of its players and per the author it is offensive? Since the author is so concerned about racism, what about the name “White Sox?” I’m white. My race is associated with the team that threw the World Series. I could easily take offense. “All white men are crooks associated with gamblers.” Why no indignant protests from the author?
criminals and probably require arrests, prosecutions and imprisonment?
If the homeless who are removed from the subways refuse to cooperate with programs designed to help them turn their lives around, what are the penalties? Will they be arrested or placed in secure mental facilities where they will be less likely to do harm to others?
Actor Lucy Liu posed with Muppet characters at the Sesame Workshop benefit gala at Cipriani 42nd Street in Manhattan on May 29, 2024. Fans of the longrunning educational puppet show series railed at recently announced cuts to PBS, where Sesame Street has aired since 1969.
Evan Agostini/Invision/AP
Those homeless people who are mentally or emotionally incapable of living safely with others have to be “imprisoned,” either in prisons (if convicted of crimes) or in secure mental institutions. Those who refuse to cooperate with reasonable and necessary treatment from qualified and competent authorities have to be treated the same way—prison or secure mental facilities.
I call out the City Council and this mayor for this problem. Their actions, or lack of, have made it so you can be an Uber or food delivery worker and earn $21 an hour, yet our EMS workers earn $18 an hour. At the very least, can’t the City Council take care of both? Is this not a priority? I think it is!As a state elected official, I wasn’t going to stand by and do nothing for our heroic first responders. This year, with the partnership of Local 2507 and Local 3621, the unions that represent the amazing men and women who serve as NYC EMS workers, I introduced and passed several bills to give them protec-
I want to clarify that the problems we are facing as a city are not the fault of any of the first responders who come to our aid. We need them, which is why it’s time for the city to pay them what they deserve. I call on the city government to do right by our emergency medical service workers. Unless things change, and I’m not being dramatic, it might be easier for us to get a ride to the hospital from an Uber or Grubhub driver than a trained medical professional. If you feel strongly about this issue, make sure to take a moment to contact Mayor Adams at mayoreric@cityhall.nyc.gov, Kdaughtry@ cityhall.nyc.gov, or through the website at https://www.nyc.gov/ office-of-the-mayor/mayor-contact.page and tell him to do right by our first responders with a new contract. If our city electeds won’t do anything on their own then it’s time for us to get loud and force their hand.
their histories. There are far more pressing concerns than the names of sports teams.
nai, the head of DOC’s Intelligence Bureau and a “former covert officer in the CIA,” could not stop the scourge of gang violence from dominating and ravaging Rikers? Varnai, at least, must be commended for wishing Molina success, and I must say he has impressive credentials.
Save it for later
Only those homeless who cooperate with those who provide necessary treatment, and can live peacefully with others, should be placed in housing in the neighborhoods in all five boroughs of the city.
J. GORMAN
MICHAEL
to climb out of poverty.
Nat Weiner
additional deduction because she is 70 years old. Her standard deduction for 2021 is $14,250 ($12,550, the standard deduction for 2021, plus $1,700, the 2021 additional standard deduction for the singles who are over 65 or blind). Example 2 In 2021, Nicole and her spouse are joint filers. Both qualify for an additional standard deduction because they are both over 65. Their Form 1040 standard deduction is $27,800 ($25,100, the 2021 standard deduction for joint filers, plus 2 x $1,350, the 2021 additional standard deduction for married persons who are over 65 or blind). The above examples reflect the benefit of the new standard deduction. Millions of taxpayers won’t be itemizing this year to reduce their Federal income-tax bill. They’ll claim the standard
How does Sarena Townsend, the Deputy Commissioner for Investigations and a former prosecutor who preferred departmental charges on thousands of uniformed staff—resulting in scores if not hundreds of correction officers being fired or forced to resign—now cries foul when she gets fired ?
Schiraldi praises his managers who created a “war room” to redeploy staff on an emergency basis. That “war room” should have also been utilized to generate and implement new policy to stop the devastating inmate violence that inflicted pain and suffering on officers and inmates alike.
To The ediTor: The headline, “Americans’ savings habits leaves little for retirement” (The Chief, July 25), and the Associated Press article that follows, give the false impression that workers’ bad financial decisions lead to poverty in their senior years. Consider how little many workers are paid nowadays. If you tell them they don’t know how to handle money, they’ll probably have an Alice Kramden response: “Of course not. I’ve never had any practice.”
So having state governments run an auto-IRA program to take money out of paychecks to fund retirement accounts is not helpful if workers need the money for current essentials. What about workers who make so little that they’re living in homeless shelters? Should they be planning for a homeless retirement?
Finally, I really don’t care. Our city, state and country are facing some of the greatest challenges in
Further, the now-garrulous Schiraldi was speechless when the unions continuously sounded the alarm regarding chaos, bedlam, lawlessness and gross mismanagement by top bosses. Commissioner Molina is addressing all those issues. Neither Schiraldi, nor any of his senior managers, have the credibility or standing to criticize Molina.
The federal minimum wage is $7.25 an hour. But even in New York City, it’s only $16.50 an hour. You need to get paid a lot more than that
The article states “Private contractors administer the investment funds, which can fluctuate with financial markets.” In other words, your funds are at the mercy of the stock market and you can wind up with less.
I guess strengthening Social Security would be too humane and sensible. How about employers paying workers good salaries so workers would actually have enough money to save? But if Amazon’s Jeff Bezos did that, he might have only half as many billions of dollars. Richard Warren
To the Editor: The proposed New York Health Act would provide on a statewide level what Medicare-for-All would provide nationwide. Yet in recent issues, it has been claimed that the reason some unions oppose this is because the medical plans they already have provide benefits that this proposal would not include. Now as a retired transit worker, I have always had good health coverage since I started working for the system in 1979. But one friend who was an excellent Transport Workers Union Local 100 rep had serious health issues before he recently passed away. He had a stroke while he was still working, and had to fight numerous large bills for medical care that was supposed to be covered. I remember him saying, “I have great coverage as long as I don’t get sick.” Under the New York Health Act, patients would not have to worry about fighting bills. They would not even have to worry if they
John Lamparski/NurPhoto via AP FDNY EMS personnel stood by for orders during a car fire on the upper floor of a parking garage in Midtown Manhattan in December 2021.
Sedgwick May 19 and by mid-July had informed Transport Workers Union Local 100 that the company was not yet able to process half of the workers compensation claims made before the transition. That’s up to 2,500 claimants possibly missing out on paychecks, Local 100 said.
After being informed of the mishap, John Chiarello, Local 100’s president, penned a letter July 18 to MTA head Janno Lieber in protest of the “incalculable harm that your shockingly bad mismanagement is causing to members of Local 100.” He wrote that Local 100 did not agree with the MTA’s “unilateral” decision to move claims processing from in-house to a third-party operator and warned of issues with the transition before it began.
“During our meetings on the topic earlier this year, however, we received multiple assurances as to the capacity of Sedgwick to handle the current inventory of claims and we were further assured that an extended transition was not necessary as Sedgwick’s expertise was indisputable,” Chiarello wrote. “What is clear is that members of Local 100 who were injured on the job – who are entitled to indemnity payments from MTA Workers Compensation and Differential payments from the MTA – will not be getting checks that they and their families depend upon to survive.”
After receiving a reply from one of Lieber’s subordinates, a frustrated Chiarello wrote a follow-up letter to the transit authority July 19 informing the MTA that a unionwide grievance had been filed about the delays. Crichlow then responded directly to the union leader July 25, writing that “transition related processing issues” created the delay and that 66 percent of recipients were paid within six days of when workers expected their payment and 33 percent were paid within seven days.
“I regret any inconvenience created by these delayed payments during the transition to this new and improved system for workers compensation claims administration,” he wrote.
New York City-based Sedgwick has 10,000 clients across 80 countries and labels itself “the world’s leading risk and claims administration partner.” In her own letter to the TWU, Sedgwick’s managing director, Jennifer Keener, wrote to Local 100 that the firm is “devoted to the wellbeing of NYCT” employees.
“We are here to support employees through this process and are working diligently to ensure their needs are met,” she said.
Frustrated Local 100 members testified at the MTA’s board meeting Wednesday about their missed payments. Emily Louise Allen, a Local 100 retiree who said she receives workers compensation payments for neck and back injuries, told the board that her July check was 15 days late.
“If it can be on time for 24 years, how is it that its not on time now,” she asked. “There is no reason for this company to be late.”
Local 100 is not retracting its union-wide grievance, a union official said, but most of the outstanding delays have been resolved, or will have been by July 31.
Crichlow said in the Monday meeting that Sedgewick would start producing daily reports for NYCT on workers compensation claims and that he understood the gravity of missed paychecks for MTA employees.
SEIU locals rally against Trump Medicaid, food stamp cuts
BY DUNCAN FREEMAN dfreeman@thechiefleader.com
Hundreds of union members marched down Billionaires’ Row in midtown Manhattan Saturday afternoon to protest cuts imposed by the Trump administration through the tax and spending bill — “big beautiful bill” as its supporters call it — passed in July.
The legislation signed by President Trump extends tax cuts from his first term that primarily benefit wealthy Americans and cuts Medicaid, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, childcare programs and other government programs.
Calling the legislation a “$4.5 trillion transfer of resources” to the wealthy, Local 1199 of the Service Employees International Union –the nation’s largest union of healthcare workers – led the march on Saturday.
The SEIU has been pushing back on many of the Trump administration’s immigration policies and Saturday’s rally was a joint effort between Local 1199 and Local 32BJ, the large union of building service workers that’s also part of SEIU. Together the two unions represent more than 600,000 Americans. John Santos, 32BJ’s secretary-treasurer, said that the unions are calling on Congress to repeal “reckless Medicaid cuts” that were included in the BBB. “Congress
created these cuts, congress can reverse it,” he said at the rally. Local 1199 says the legislation — which the local is calling the Big Ugly Bill — will take healthcare away from 17 million people nationwide, among them 1.5 million New Yorkers. Members pushed empty shopping carts and wheelchairs during the march to represent the healthcare and food assistance cuts.
“Extremist Republicans, beholden to their billionaire donors, voted to rip healthcare away from 17 million Americans and slash food assistance that millions more depend on to avoid going hungry–just to put more money into ICE and expand tax breaks for corporations and the super-rich,” Yvonne Armstrong, the new president of Local 1199, said in a statement. “We are bringing these empty wheelchairs and shopping carts to Billionaire’s Row to raise our voices against this outrageous transfer of billions from those who can least afford it to those who have no need for more.”
The law will add more than $3.5 trillion to the federal deficit in the next decade and more than 10 million Americans will lose out on healthcare coverage, according to the Congressional Budget Office.
According to Local 1199, more than 18 percent of New Yorkers rely on SNAP and the cuts could cause hospitals in the Empire State to lose out on $13.5 billion a year.
Manny Pastreich, Local 32BJ’s
president, said that while the bill cutting Medicaid and other benefits had passed, the fight was far from over.
“The Trump Administration and congressional Republicans have shown time and time again where their loyalties lie – and it is not with working people,” he said in a statement. “While most Americans are struggling with the rising cost of groceries, diapers, medications, and other basic necessities, this administration has chosen to gut the essential health care, food, and child care programs that millions of working families rely on — all to give tax cuts to corporations and the ultra-rich. As a union of essential workers, we are taking to the streets to let these leaders know: there will be a price to pay.
Adams: Housing project at Flushing Airport site will create 1,300 union jobs
3,000 workforce units
BY CRYSTAL LEWIS clewis@thechiefleader.com
The former Flushing Airport, decommissioned decades ago, will serve as the foundation of 3,000 new homes, with the project expected to create 1,300 unionized construction jobs, Mayor Adams said this week.
Announced Monday as part of Housing Week, construction at the 80-acre site in College Point, Queens, is expected to begin in 2028.
The project will also encompass 60 acres of public green space, an area of land nearby the airfield that has remained vacant since the airport closed in 1984.
The development will be sponsored by pension funds from the Building and Construction Trades Council of Greater New York, stemming from a March 2024 partnership between Cirrus Workforce Housing, City Hall and the Building Trades Council aimed at creating housing on public land using union labor.
In addition to creating the construction jobs, the project will also provide 530 permanent other jobs.
Developers Cirrus Workforce Housing and LCOR Incorporated have promised to use 100 percent union labor to build and operate the project.
“Every time we build a new house, we build more dreams and families, but you know, if it’s union built, we get a double win for us,” Adams said at a press event announcing the housing project. “We’re making
American dream.”
The development is projected to produce $3.2 billion in economic activity over the next three decades, according to the Adams administration.
Joseph McDonnell, the managing partner at Cirrus Workforce Housing Fund, pointed out that many of the teachers, police officers and other essential workers who could potentially benefit from the 3,000 homes being built are living in areas such as the Poconos. The project will “provide them dignified, high-quality housing surrounded by 60 acres of wetland that will be enjoyed not only by them but by the current residents,” McDonnell said. Other unions, among them the District Council of Carpenters and District Council 9, applauded the project. “As a union, we have the simple belief that if you build something, then you should be able to afford to live in it,” said Robert Bartels Jr., the business manager of UA Steamfitters Local 638.
sure that the union members who built the housing can afford to live in the housing that they are building, and that’s what we’re talking about here.”
Gary LaBarbera, the president of the Building Trades Council, said that when he began discussing the idea of using union pension funds to build on public land, he told the mayor that just 3.8 percent of housing built in the last 20 years or so was for workforce housing. “And workforce housing is the city’s essential workers,” he said.
“In the current environment, you
know, these workers make a little too much money to qualify for affordable, but not enough for market rate,” LaBarbera added. “So, with this model, we’re going to put pension fund money, coordinate and collaborate and partner with the City of New York…. And one of the things that is very important to Mayor Adams and to the Building Trades as well, we’re going to also be able to bring people into the building trades, because there’s more work for marginalized communities and give them the opportunity to go into the middle class and pursue the
Queens Borough President Donovan Richards pointed out that the development at Flushing Airport was one among several “transformational” housing projects, including in Jamaica and Far Rockaway, designed to serve New Yorkers otherwise being pushed out of the city.
“So, we are really creating a pipeline for not only our union workers, we look at all the economic development that’s happening in Queens and look at what’s happening at Willets Point, the fastest growing, largest affordable housing development built in 40 years,” Richards said.
Dependent children, under the age of 14 years, to the custody of St. Dominic’s Family Services, alleged to be permanently neglected and abandoned children, and the children of a mentally ill parent, pursuant to Section 384-b of the Social Services Law. In the Name of the People of the
of a mentally ill parent, as defined by Article 6, Part 1 of the Family Court Act and Section 384-b of the Social Services Law; YOU ARE HEREBY SUMMONED to appear before the Family Court at 900 Sheridan Ave., Bronx, New York, Part 8, on the 8th day of September, 2025, before the Hon. Angel Cruz, at 2:30 in the afternoon of said day, or virtually via the following link: https://notify. nycourts.gov/meet/0k5f7q or by phone at: 1-347-378-4143, conference ID: 173206941#, to show cause why the Court should not enter an Order depriving you of all the rights of custody of AIYANA LINDSAY BAKER WILMOT MITCHELL A/K/A AIYANA MITCHELL and NO GIVEN NAME MITCHELL A/K/A BABY GIRL B MITCHELL A/K/A NOELLE MITCHELL, awarding the custody of said children to the petitioning authorized agency as permanently neglected and abandoned children, and the children of a mentally ill parent, as provided by law. PLEASE TAKE NOTICE that if said children are adjudged to be permanently neglected or abandoned children, or the children of a mentally ill parent, and if custody is awarded to said authorized agency, said children may be adopted with the consent of said agency and without further notice to you and without your consent. PLEASE TAKE FURTHER NOTICE that your failure to appear will result in the termination of all your parental rights to the children. PLEASE TAKE FURTHER NOTICE that your failure to appear shall constitute a denial of interest in the children, which denial may result in the transfer or
commitment of the children’s care, custody, guardianship or adoption of the children, all without further notice to the parents of the children. PLEASE TAKE FURTHER NOTICE that you are entitled to be represented by an attorney and, if you cannot afford to retain an attorney, one will be appointed to represent you by the Court free of charge to you.
8/1/25-9/5/25 Notice of Qualification of 577 BALTIC TIC 2 LLC. Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 07/11/25. Office location: NY County. LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 04/22/25. Princ. office of LLC: 551 Fifth Ave., Ste. 1720, NY, NY 10176. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to the LLC, 251 Little Falls Dr.,
UPCOMING EXAMS LEADING TO JOBS
Below is a roundup of New York City and State exams leading to public-service positions. Most of the jobs listed are located in the New York Metropolitan area and upstate.
There are residency requirements for many New York City jobs and for state law-enforcement positions.
Prospective applicants are advised to write or call the appropriate office to make sure they meet the qualifications needed to apply for an exam. For jobs for which no written tests are given, candidates will be rated on education and experience, or by oral tests or performance exams.
DCAS Computer-based Testing and Application Centers (CTACs) have re-opened to the public. However, due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, walk-ins are no longer accepted and appointments must be scheduled online through OASys for eligible list or examination related inquiries.
All examination and eligible list related notifications will be sent by email only, you will no longer receive notifications via the US mail.
All new hires must be vaccinated against the COVID-19 virus, unless they have been granted a reasonable accommodation for religion or disability. If you are offered city employment, this requirement must be met by your date of hire, unless a reasonable accommodation for exemption is received and approved by the hiring agency.
For further information about where to apply to civil service exams and jobs, visit the thechief.org/exams.
The Federal Government has decentralized its personnel operations and holds few exams on a national or regional basis. Most Federal vacancies are filled by individual agencies based on education-and-experience evaluations. For information, contact the U.S. Office of Personnel Management or individual agencies, or see www.usajobs.gov.
SUFFOLK COUNTY EXAMS
SUPERVISOR OF ELECTRICAL INSTALLATIONS AND MAINTENANCE–53 eligibles between Nos. 1 and 52 on List 4105 for 1 job in DOE.
ADMINISTRATIVE MANAGER–86 eligibles between Nos. 2 and 116 on List 1552 for 4 jobs in NYPD.
ASSOCIATE TRAFFIC ENFORCEMENT AGENT–50 eligibles between Nos. 313 and 396 on List 573 for 1 job in NYPD.
MAINTENANCE SUPERVISOR (SIGNALS)–67 eligibles between Nos. 1 and 68 on List 3720 for 25 jobs at NYC Transit.
SUPERVISING HOUSING GROUNDSKEEPER–99 eligibles between Nos. 1 and 104 on List 4550 for 2 jobs at HA. SUPERVISOR
distributing materials and supplies at the central warehouses and/or storerooms of the MTA New York City Transit system. They load and unload trucks; unpack, count, sort, mark and place materials and supplies received on pallets, shelves and in bins; pick supplies from bins, racks, and shelves to fill requisitions; lift and carry bulky and heavy railroad/bus parts and tools; check materials received, perform verifications, and note breakage and differences in quantity; operate hydraulic diesel and electric lift trucks; keep storage areas and materials clean and orderly.
They also assist in preparing inventories and in maintaining records of supplies and equipment received and issued, including scrap and obsolete materials; make entries in a systematized quantity ledger; enter data into stock-tracking computerized inventory management systems; operate motor vehicles; and perform related work. Railroad stock workers operate material-handling equipment such as lift trucks, retrievals, carousels and wrapping machinery; climb and descend ladders; lift heavy material and/or packages up to 50 pounds; and work outside in all
weather conditions. They may be required to work various shifts including nights, Saturdays, Sundays and holidays. There are two assignment levels within this class of positions. Appointments will be made to assignment level I. After appointment, employees may be assigned to the higher assignment level at the discretion of MTA NYCT.
REQUIREMENTS
By Aug. 15, applicants must have either 1) Three years of full-time satisfactory experience as a stock assistant, stock clerk, stock worker or shipping and receiving clerk in an industrial, manufacturing, or wholesaling warehouse or similar large-scale environment; or 2) Four years of full-time satisfactory experience as a stock assistant, stock clerk, stock worker or shipping and receiving clerk in a retail environment which primarily stocks automotive, machine, marine maintenance tools, production parts, or plumbing, hardware or sheet metal supplies; and/or manual or power maintenance tools.
Up to one (1) year of experience performing at the supervisory or managerial level overseeing the
work described in “1” or “2” above can be substituted for up to one (1) year of the experience described in “1” or “2” above Qualifying part-time experience will be credited on a prorated basis. Appointees must have a valid driver’s license, with no disqualifying restrictions. They must also pass a drug screening; and be able to understand and be understood in English. City residency is not required.
THE TEST
The multiple-choice test may measure knowledge, skills and abilities in the following and other related areas: General warehousing practices and procedures; general warehousing documents; written comprehension and expression; problem sensitivity; mathematical reasoning; number facility; inductive reasoning; information gathering; visualization; flexibility of closure.
For complete information on the job, including on how to apply, go to https://www.mta.info/document/177846.
LABOR AROUND THE WORLD LABOR AROUND THE WORLD LABOR AROUND THE WORLD
Work in southern Europe’s sweltering tourist hot spots is becoming hellish
Unions push for regulations
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Cruel heat is baking southern Europe as the continent slips deeper into summer.
In homes and offices, air conditioning is sweet relief. But under the scorching sun, outdoor labor can be grueling, brutal, occasionally even deadly.
A street sweeper died in Barcelona during a heat wave in June and, according to a labor union, 12 other city cleaners have suffered heatstroke since. Some of Europe’s powerful unions are pushing for tougher regulations to protect the aging workforce from climate change on the world’s fastest-warming continent.
Broiling streets
Hundreds of street cleaners and concerned citizens marched through downtown Barcelona late last month to protest the death of Montse Aguilar, a 51-year-old street cleaner who worked even as the city’s temperatures hit a June record.
Fellow street sweeper Antonia Rodríguez said at the protest that
Job market continues to cool
Openings fell to 7.4 million last month
BY PAUL WISEMAN Associated Press
Employers posted 7.4 million job vacancies last month, a sign that the American job market continues to cool. The Labor Department reported Tuesday that job openings in June were down from 7.7 million in May and were about what forecasters had expected.
The Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) showed that layoffs were little changed in June. But the number of people quitting their jobs — a sign of confidence in their prospects elsewhere — dropped last month to the lowest level since December. Hiring also fell from May.
Posting on Bluesky, Glassdoor economist Daniel Zhao wrote that the report “shows softer figures with hires and quits rates still sluggish. Not dire, not amazing, more meh.’’
The U.S. job market has lost momentum this year, partly because of the lingering effects of 11 interest rate hikes by the inflation fighters at the Federal Reserve in 2022 and 2023 and partly because President Donald Trump’s trade wars have created uncertainty that is paralyzing managers making hiring decisions. On Friday, the Labor Department will put out unemployment and hiring numbers for July. They are expected to show that the unemployment rate ticked up to a still-low 4.2 percent in July from 4.1 percent in June. Businesses, government agencies and nonprofits are expected to have added 115,000 jobs in July, down from 147,000 in June, according to a survey of economists by the data firm FactSet. The seemingly decent June hiring numbers were weaker than they appeared. Private payrolls rose just 74,000 in June, fewest since last October when hurricanes disrupted job sites. And state and local governments added nearly 64,000 education jobs in June – a total that economists suspect was inflated by seasonal quirks around the end of the school year.
So far this year, the economy has been generating 130,000 jobs a month, down from 168,000 last year and an average 400,000 a month from 2021 through 2023 during the recovery from pandemic lockdowns. Employers are less likely to hire, but they’re also not letting workers go either. Layoffs remain below pre-pandemic levels.
blistering summers have made her work “unbearable.”
“I have been doing this job for 23 years and each year the heat is worse,” said Rodríguez, 56. “Something has to be done.”
Extreme heat has fueled more than 1,000 excess deaths in Spain so far in June and July, according to the Carlos III Health Institute.
“Climate change is, above all, playing a role in extreme weather events like the heat waves we are experiencing, and is having a big impact in our country,” said Diana Gómez, who heads the institute’s daily mortality observatory.
Even before the march, Barcelona’s City Hall issued new rules requiring the four companies contracted to clean its streets to give workers uniforms made of breathable material, a hat and sun cream. When temperatures reach 93 degrees, street cleaners now must have hourly water breaks and routes that allow time in the shade. Cleaning work will be suspended when temperatures hit 104 degrees.
Protesters said none of the clothing changes have been put into effect and workers are punished for allegedly slacking in the heat. They said supervisors would sanction workers when they took breaks or slowed down.
Workers marched behind a ban-
ner reading “Extreme Heat Is Also Workplace Violence!” and demanded better summer clothing and more breaks during the sweltering summers. They complained that they have to buy their own water.
FCC Medio Ambiente, the company that employed the deceased worker, declined to comment on the protesters’ complaints. In a previous statement, it offered its condolences to Aguilar’s family and said that it trains its staff to work in hot weather.
Emergency measures
In Greece, regulations for outdoor labor such as construction work and food delivery includes mandatory breaks. Employers are also advised — but not mandated — to adjust shifts to keep workers out of the midday sun.
Greece requires heat-safety inspections during hotter months but the country’s largest labor union, the GSEE, is calling for year-round monitoring.
European labor unions and the United Nations’ International Labor Organization are also pushing for a more coordinated international approach to handling the impact of rising temperatures on workers.
“Heat stress is an invisible killer,” the ILO said in a report last year on
how heat hurts workers.
It called for countries to increase worker heat protections, saying Europe and Central Asia have experienced the largest spike in excessive worker heat exposure this century.
In Athens, grill cook Thomas Siamandas shaves meat from a spit in the threshold of the famed Bairaktaris Restaurant. He is out of the sun, but the 100.4-degree temperature recorded on July 16 was even tougher to endure while standing in front of souvlaki burners.
Grill cooks step into air-conditioned rooms when possible and always keep water within reach.
Working with a fan pointed at his feet, the 32-year-old said staying cool means knowing when to take a break, before the heat overwhelms you.
“It’s tough, but we take precautions: We sit down when we can, take frequent breaks and stay hydrated. We drink plenty of water — really a lot,” said Siamandas, who has worked at the restaurant for eight years. “You have to find a way to adjust to the conditions.”
The blazing sun in Rome Massimo De Filippis spends hours in the blazing sun each day sharing the history of vestal virgins, dueling gladiators and powerful emperors
as tourists shuffle through Rome’s Colosseum and Forum.
“Honestly, it is tough. I am not going to lie,” the 45-year-old De Filippis said as he wiped sweat from his face. “Many times it is actually dangerous to go into the Roman Forum between noon and 3:30 p.m.” At midday on July 22, he led his group down the Forum’s Via Sacra, the central road in ancient Rome. They paused at a fountain to rinse their faces and fill their bottles. Dehydrated tourists often pass out here in the summer heat, said Francesca Duimich, who represents 300 Roman tour guides in Italy’s national federation, Federagit.
“The Forum is a pit; There is no shade, there is no wind,” Duimich said. “Being there at 1 p.m. or 2 p.m. in the summer heat means you will feel unwell.”
This year, guides have bombarded her with complaints about the heat. In recent weeks, Federagit requested that the state’s Colosseum Archaeological Park, which oversees the Forum, open an hour earlier so tours can get a jump-start before the heat becomes punishing. The request has been to no avail, so far. The park’s press office said that administrators are working to move the opening up by 30 minutes and will soon schedule visits after sunset.
Beer and food workers went on strike during recent homestand
BY JIMMY GOLEN Associated Press
In what’s believed to be the first union walkout in the ballpark’s 113-year-history, striking Fenway Park vendors banged on drums and shouted “Don’t buy food!” while walking a picket line outside the home of the Boston Red Sox before last Friday’s night’s game against the Los Angeles Dodgers. Hundreds of Aramark workers marched along the street behind the team’s right field concourse before the series opener, carrying round picket signs decorated with red baseball stitching. A giant inflatable rat shared the sidewalk with a statue of Red Sox greats Ted Williams, Bobby Doerr, Dom DiMaggio and Johnny Pesky. Another group of picketers cir-
cled behind home plate after the first pitch as Local 26 of the Massachusetts and Rhode Island hotel, casino, airport and food services workers union went on strike at noon during the recent three-game homestand. It posted on social media that it is asking for “living wages, guardrails on technology and R-E-S-P-E-C-T!”
The workers have been without a contract since the end of last year.
“Respect the picket line,” the union posted. “We know tix are expensive, we’re not asking you to stay away from the home games. But we ARE asking you to not buy concessions. No purchase of pretzels, pickles or peanuts inside the ballpark during the homestand.”
An Aramark spokesman said the company has bargained in good faith and is “disappointed the union rejected our latest offer and chose to call a strike.”
“We are committed to delivering an outstanding fan experience and have contingency plans in place to ensure fans will not encounter service inter-
ruptions,” the company said.
The Red Sox noted that the team was not involved in the negotiations but remained in contact with the concessionaire. Aramark made an offer as recently as Thursday night that was rejected by the union, the team said.
“Aramark has implemented its contingency staffing plans, and fans can expect a full and uninterrupted ballpark experience this weekend, including access to all food, beverage, and hospitality services throughout Fenway Park,” the team said. “We remain hopeful that the parties will reach a swift and fair resolution.”
A Red Sox spokeswoman said after Friday night’s game, a full house of 36,369, that “ballpark concessions performed at the expected levels consistent with tonight’s sold out crowd.”
U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders called on the team to support the vendors.
“Fenway Park is an iconic American institution, and it’s the workers there that make every Red Sox game special,” he posted on social media.
“The team is extremely profitable. They should treat their employees with respect, pay them decent wages and negotiate a fair contract with the union.” Maggie McCue, a beer vendor with 19 years of experience who is 24 weeks pregnant with twins, took a break from marching in the near-90 degree temperatures to eat a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Her mother, also a beer vendor for almost two decades, said the team can afford for the workers to be paid a living wage.
“They have more money than they need,” Marianne McCue said. “We are Fenway. Fenway is us. Some people have been here 40-something years and they’re not even backing us up. Shame on them. I never thought that at 70 years old I would be on strike, but here we are.” The Red Sox left town to play in Minneapolis against the Twins and return for a six-game homestand starting Friday against the Astros. The union left open the possibility of another walkout by the vendors.
Jim Davis/AP Photo
Striking concession workers picketed outside of Fenway Park before a Los Angeles Dodgers game against the Boston Red Sox last Sunday in Boston.
