Posts tagged New York
Public employee unions push to sweeten retirement
March 15, 2026 // At a massive rally in Albany, public employees attacked Tier VI, the state law that restricts pensions for workers under the age of 63. Fiscal conservatives argue that unions want taxpayers to pay them more for working less. The unions counter that it’s a matter of fairness — and it’s making it hard to recruit talent.
Labor Watch: St. John’s Axes Unions, CSU Strike Pays Off
March 5, 2026 // St. John’s is the second institution to use a religious exemption to shutter its union this academic year; in the fall, the Loyola Marymount University Board of Trustees announced it would no longer recognize its non-tenure-track faculty union and cease bargaining.
Empty classrooms? NYU professors to strike this month if contract agreements are not settled
March 5, 2026 // “The union’s announcement of a strike deadline is unwarranted and unjustifiable,” he said. “It comes immediately after the university offered their members the highest minimum salaries of any unionized full-time contract faculty in the country.” He added that the union’s actions do not justify jeopardizing the students’ education at the university.
Editorial: Hochul ‘anti-fraud’ scheme backfires into a taxpayer gift to a monster union
March 3, 2026 // After we and others flagged how loose eligibility rules and other issues had led to a 1,200% spike in CDPAP enrollment, soaring fraud and outlays of $11 billion, the gov used public outrage to pass a reform that she vowed would rein in the program. Yet her “solution” was simply to hire a single company, Public Partnerships, to centralize payments to these aides — which now lets them legally count as PPL employees, and so qualified to unionize.
Opinion Public unions’ stealthy scheme will siphon $100B from NY taxpayers
March 1, 2026 // In fact, many union leaders say their members shouldn’t have to pay anything toward their pensions. And it’s a matter of “equity” and “dignity,” they say, for teachers and office workers at state agencies to be able to retire with full pensions (plus taxpayer-funded retiree health insurance) at age 55. The unions want to “fix” these supposed injustices.
St. John’s University says it no longer recognizes faculty unions after 56 years
February 24, 2026 // Asserting its identity as a religious institution of higher education, attorneys for St. John's University argued that New York's Public Employment Relations Board lacked jurisdiction over the university on First Amendment grounds. The university also said that faculty members were "managerial employees" of the university and "therefore must be excluded from any bargaining unit." The university's response further argued that the state board was "preempted" from asserting jurisdiction under the federal National Labor Relations Act.
More than 30,000 Kaiser Permanente health care workers to end strike in California and Hawaii
February 24, 2026 // Those on picket lines, including pharmacists, midwives and rehab therapists, said salaries have not kept pace with inflation and there is not enough staffing to keep up with patient demand. They asked for a 25% wage increase over four years to make up for wages they say are at least 7% behind their peers. Kaiser Permanente had countered with a 21.5% increase over four years. The company maintained that its union employees earn, on average, 16% more than their peers, and that it would have to charge customers more to meet strikers' pay demands.
NY Fire Captain Charged with Forging Union Checks
February 24, 2026 // A 45-year-old fire captain in Glens Falls, New York has been arrested and charged with forgery and petit larceny after allegedly writing and cashing two checks from the fire department union account for his own personal use. Richard Stafford, who has worked for the Glens Falls Fire Department for 16 years, was serving as the union secretary at the time of the alleged incidents. Why it matters This case highlights concerns about financial mismanagement and abuse of power within public sector unions,
Opinion: Teachers Unions Get Desperate
February 17, 2026 // Antichoice plaintiffs “usually file lawsuits right before families sign up for the program just to be particularly cruel. They know they’ll lose nearly every case, but delaying or enjoining the programs in any way is the last-ditch effort to slow maximum uptake for families,” says Tommy Schultz, CEO of the American Federation for Children. Many suits are striking out. Idaho’s high court just ruled 5-0 in favor of the state choice program. Top courts in Arizona, Florida, North Carolina and West Virginia have upheld choice programs. The U.S. Supreme Court has continued to issue beneficial rulings. Yet the legal threat is real, and unions, often accompanied by local school districts, continue to throw millions at litigation and disruption, forcing states to spend huge amounts to defend against them. Then the unions and the districts claim schools are underfunded.
Andrew Tarlow’s Greenpoint Bar Achilles Heel Has Closed
February 10, 2026 // “The business has faced a protracted period of financial hardship, and we’ve reached a point where it is no longer viable to continue operating,” the post reads. The staff allegedly announced a desire to unionize; in the announcement for the closure, the comments are turned off. If it had unionized, it would not be the first Tarlow spot to do so; She Wolf had also unionized about two years ago, after a brutal battle, which included a staffer drawing an antisemitic caricature of the owner in a workers’ zine.