Posts tagged Kathy Hochul
Gov. Hochul to send National Guard into NY prisons if correction officers don’t end illegal strikes
February 19, 2025 // A prison workers’ union, NYS Correctional Officers and Police Benevolent Association, said it did not sanction the illegal jobs actions. But upstate Republican lawmakers said they remain in support of the protesting officers and blasted the Democratic governor for her alleged inability to safeguard state prisons. “New York’s prisons are becoming war zones due to the Hochul Prison Crisis. Correctional facilities are on the brink of collapse,” state Sen. Peter Oberacker said in a statement, claiming assaults on officers have hit record highs and staffing levels have been gutted.

Unions Reprogram NYS To Do Less With More
December 28, 2024 // And for good reason: these “protections” will bring slower-than-appropriate service delivery at higher-than-necessary costs, slamming the brakes on a multi-generation trend toward more efficiency, both across the economy and in state agencies themselves. Hochul in her approval message indicated she wants the Legislature to make technical changes to the bill but overall played to the unions’ fear-mongering:

New York’s Fastest-Growing Union Is Management’s Best Friend — and Some Workers Don’t Even Know They’re Members
December 20, 2024 // Though she last worked for Five Borough two months ago, she stopped receiving pay stubs long before that, she said — paperwork that would have had to show deductions, including for union dues. Supervisors ignored her repeated requests for pay records, she said. Through such voluntary recognition deals with management, less than a decade after its founding, HHWA has exploded in size. It currently claims some 43,000 members, up from 14,141 in 2018. An investigation into Home Healthcare Workers of America by THE CITY, based on interviews with past and current members, legal records and other public statements, reveals that this fast-growing union is a tool of company management in the form of a labor organization.
NEW YORK: Hochul Report Whitewashes Teachers Union Antisemitism; Commentary
October 31, 2024 // Months before Hamas’s Oct. 7 attacks on Israel, a CUNY Law commencement speaker delivered what one commentator described as a “Nuremburg-style screed” against Israel, accusing it of murder and lynchings. CUNY’s administration called the speech “unacceptable.” Meanwhile, the PSC, led by Davis, demanded that CUNY — not the speaker — retract its statement. After the Oct. 7 attacks, the union allowed “CUNY4Palestine” to promote anti-Israel rallies on the union’s email list and later condemned Columbia University for dispersing a pro-Hamas student encampment.
Biden Backs ILA Strikers Warning Shippers on Price Spikes
October 2, 2024 // “Now is not the time for ocean carriers to refuse to negotiate a fair wage for these essential workers while raking in record profits,” Biden said in a statement from the White House. “My administration will be monitoring any price gouging activity that benefits foreign ocean carriers, including those on the USMX board.”

Op-Ed: Hochul needs to shut down this pricey home-health-care power grab
September 25, 2024 // And bidders are all too likely to fold: “The political world does not mess” with 1199 SEIU,” snarks Empire Center health-industry expert Bill Hammond. “Any bidder with the slightest understanding of what they were getting into when entering into this contract would know what that meant when [1199 SEIU] put that piece of paper in front of them.” Unionizing 200,000 caregivers would be a huge win for 1199, which already boasts 450,000 members. Yet it would defeat the purpose of the program — which, again, is to help family members, not unionized employees, to care for loved ones.
Blue State Just Let Teachers Unions Off The Hook For Failing Public Schools
July 12, 2024 // Under the new law, teachers’ unions will be able to collectively bargain over performance reviews, preventing ineffective teachers from facing any consequences, according to the WSJ. New York spends almost twice the national average on education at $29,873 per pupil, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
New York measures to fire ineffective teachers repealed
July 2, 2024 // In addition, teacher evaluations will no longer have to consider test scores, student growth scores and other measures that the state tried to use from 2010 until when the pandemic hit in 2020.

Hochul wins fight to create anti-mob group aimed at NYC waterfront
April 19, 2024 // Like the prior comission, it will continue to conduct critical investigations into organized crime in the Port of New York, as well as ensure fair hiring practices that bar discrimination. It will conduct background checks and license companies and people working in the cargo business at the port. The commission will have the power to oust employees from the workforce who are found to have engaged in serious criminality and other violations.
Unions call on lawmakers to tackle affordable housing
April 17, 2024 // Michael Heller, president of the Association of Riverdale Cooperatives & Condominiums, said he was happy to see the strike averted. “We’re delighted this was avoided and we hope our co-op boards and our co-op leadership can continue to have a productive relationship with their unionized employees for a full three more years,” Heller said. In a statement, realty board president Billy Schur said rising interest and insurance rates, vacancies, and other issues arising from the 2019 Housing Stability and Tenant Protection Act were to blame for a hostile environment for property owners throughout the borough. Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz disagreed. “That’s a lot of nonsense,” Dinowitz said. “They’ve been bellyaching about the HSTPA for the past five years. But they certainly didn’t complain when the laws were so heavily skewed toward landlords, when they were making money hand over fist.” The root of the problem, Dinowitz said, is rents are too high. “The solution to everything is not necessarily in Albany,” he said.