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WSJ - Backdoor Approach to Organizing
created on 07/24/2013 at 13:13:49, last updated on 07/24/2013 at 13:13:49http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324144304578622050818960988.html... Read more
Golden Fails To Explain $44M Tax Break To Luxury Developer
created on 07/24/2013 at 13:12:37, last updated on 07/24/2013 at 13:12:37http://www.bensonhurstbean.com/2013/07/golden-tax-break-luxury-developer/... Read more
Surico : Mikes Labor Legacy
created on 07/22/2013 at 16:23:32, last updated on 07/22/2013 at 16:23:32Mike’s Labor Legacy by John Surico In his 2006 inaugural address, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg vowed to avoid “partisanship and prejudice.” Over the next three years, he would leap up a hundred spots on Forbes’s Billionaires List, the single largest increase by any individual in the world. Meanwhile, the same mayor who touted his C.E.O.-style managerial abilities (and also cited his financial expertise as the primary reason to overturn term limits) began to steadily undercut City Hall’s relationships with the city workforce. When Bloomberg took office in 2002, he sought to end the hostile labor climate that had prevailed under his predecessor. “You had someone like Mayor Giuliani, who really did not have great relations with the unions and ended his term leaving all the union contracts unsettled,” Maria Doulis of the Citizens Budget Commission (C.B.C.) recalled. “The unions really felt like they didn’t want to deal with [the Giul... Read more
Behind Citys Painful Din, Culprits High and Low
created on 07/22/2013 at 16:21:44, last updated on 07/22/2013 at 16:21:44The first helicopter thundered overhead at 8:05 a.m., as Christine Reekie was sipping her morning coffee. Another one came a minute later, and another, and another, and yet another, swooping so low she feared it would not clear the transmission lines. Ms. Reekie had suffered a small stroke two years earlier, and now she shakily began noting each flyover in writing. By noon, she had counted 14, as they jetted to and from the Hamptons right over her home in Floral Park, just over the border from Queens on Long Island. Fifteen miles due west, in Brooklyn Heights, Roberto Gautier greeted the bathroom mirror with bloodshot eyes. For the umpteenth night running, jackhammering on the Brooklyn Bridge 23 stories below had kept him up until dawn. An aged neighbor appeared at his door, distraught about the racket, having forgotten that she had come knocking the night before. Mr. Gautier’s wife had arranged to stay at a friend’s house because she could no longer focus at work. “We’re at the brea... Read more
Deaf NY Starbucks patrons sue, say they were mocked
created on 07/22/2013 at 16:19:48, last updated on 07/22/2013 at 16:20:29NEW YORK (AP) — Some Starbucks workers in the city were so rude to deaf customers they mocked them and called the police to try to get them kicked out, a lawsuit says. The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages and an order from the court to stop discriminatory behavior for what's described as multiple occasions of abuse over the past year. The suit, filed in federal court in Manhattan last week on behalf of 12 people, says one Starbucks Corp. employee laughed hysterically at a plaintiff's speech while others objected to a monthly meeting of a group of deaf people named Deaf Chat Coffee and called police. Starbucks spokeswoman Jamie Riley said the Seattle-based company, which refers to its employees as partners, is investigating. "Discrimination of any kind at Starbucks in unacceptable," she said. "We take these allegations very seriously and believe that they are neither in line with our values nor our track record of engaging the deaf community as partners and as customers." The lawsuit said the polic... Read more
