Chris Smalls, president of Amazon Labor Union, the grassroots union formed by Staten Island Amazon workers in protest of the company's handling of COVID and other workplace violations, updates us on the fight to be recognized as an official union by the National Labor Relations Board. The around 6000 employees at largest of the four Staten Island Amazon warehouses, JFK8, will vote on whether or not to unionize this spring. On WBAI-99.5 FM, Indypendent News Hour Tuesdays 5-6 p.m.
Feb 02, 2022•10 min
Co-host Amba Guerguerian went out to the United Metro Energy Corporation Tuesday morning, where all workers have been on strike for 9 months. Their billionaire boss, John Catsimatidis, pays them $10 the industry average for their dangerous work transporting oil. We hear the voices of the strikers and learn how to support them. On WBAI-99.5 FM, Indypendent News Hour Tuesdays 5-6 p.m.
Feb 02, 2022•9 min
On this week's episode of The Indy News Hour: Co-host Amba Guerguerian went out to the United Metro Energy Corporation Tuesday morning, where all workers have been on strike for 9 months. Their billionaire boss, John Catsimatidis, pays them $10 the industry average for their dangerous work transporting oil. We hear the voices of the strikers and learn how to support them. Chris Smalls, president of Amazon Labor Union, the grassroots union formed by Staten Island Amazon workers in protest of the ...
Feb 02, 2022•54 min
Voices of United Metro Energy Corp Workers on Strike with Teamsters Local 553 by The Indypendent
Feb 01, 2022•3 min
On this week's show, Indypendent Editor-in-Chief John Tarleton and Associate Editor Amba Guerguerian interview Security-Treaurer of Teamsters Local 553, Demos Demopolous, who is leading two dozen oil workers in Brooklyn on their 9-month long strike against billionaire boss, John Castimatidis, owner of United Metro Energy Corp.
Jan 26, 2022•8 min
On this week's show, Indypendent Editor-in-Chief John Tarleton and Associate Editor Amba Guerguerian interview Nic Nicoludis. Nicoludis, member of Rank and File Action (RAFA), the more militant faction of PSC-CUNY, The City University of New York staff & faculty union. RAFA is demanding an end to a mandate that 70% of courses be taught in person this semester and called for CUNY admin to reverse all planned adjunct layoffs resulting from the madate.
Jan 26, 2022•13 min
On this week's show, Indypendent Editor-in-Chief John Tarleton and Associate Editor Amba Guerguerian interview Socialist Citycouncilmember Alexa Avilés, a member of DSA, who was just made chair of city council’s NYCHA committee. Avilés, who represents Sunset Park and Red Hook in Brooklyn, talks about how she plans to approach NYCHA.
Jan 26, 2022•17 min
On this week's show, Indypendent Editor-in-Chief John Tarleton and Associate Editor Amba Guerguerian interview Ted Hamm, Indy criminal justice reporter, about the recent police killing in Harlem and the current rhetoric around public safety in NYC and reform pushbacks.
Jan 26, 2022•14 min
On this week's show, Indypendent Editor-in-Chief John Tarleton and Associate Editor Amba Guerguerian interview: On this week's show, Indypendent Editor-in-Chief John Tarleton and Associate Editor Amba Guerguerian interview: * Ted Hamm, Indy criminal justice reporter, about the recent police killing in the Bronx and the current rhetoric around public safety in NYC and reform pushbacks. * Nic Nicoludis of Rank and File Action (RAFA), the more militant faction of PSC-CUNY, The City University of Ne...
Jan 26, 2022•57 min
Assemblymember Marcela Mitaynes about her first year in office, why she got arrested at Thursday’s climate demo and the prospects for moving bold progressive legislation in Albany this year.
Jan 19, 2022•14 min
Amba Guerguerian, an Indy reporter who was at the Brooklyn Housing Court Tuesday — the first day courts were open since the NY eviction moratorium expired — and spoke with tenants on the brink of eviction and "eviction defender" tenant organizers.
Jan 19, 2022•8 min
Indypendent EIC John Tarleton interviews Bronx public school parent and former AOC staffer Jonathan Soto who is running for a State Assembly as a champion of replacing mayoral control of schools with community control.
Jan 19, 2022•14 min
Indypendent EIC John Tarleton interviews Permeash & Kaira A, two public school students who walked out of their classes last week to protest unsafe conditions in their buildings amid the latest surge of COVID-19.
Jan 19, 2022•17 min
This week on The Indypendent New Hour, we hear from: Amba Guerguerian, a reporter who was at the Brooklyn Housing Court on Tuesday — the first day NY courts were open since the NY eviction moratorium expired on Saturday — and spoke with tenants on the brink of eviction and "eviction defender" tenant organizers. Two public school students who walked out of their classes last week to protest unsafe conditions in their buildings amid the latest surge of COVID-19. Bronx public school parent and form...
Jan 19, 2022•58 min
Neelu Shruti, birthing justice advocate, says pregnant people looking for healthy opportunities to hospital birthing have just been betrayed by Gov. Kathy Hochul.
Jan 05, 2022•11 min
Matthew Thomas, (Vulgar Marxism on Substack) talks about his latest investigation that looks at how Columbia and NYC’s other private universities get away with not paying more than $.5 billion in property taxes. That money is enough to make CUNY (City University of New York) free again.
Jan 05, 2022•16 min
Sarmad Akkach, an organizer with the Student Workers of Columbia, gives us the latest update on what's happening at Columbia University where 3,000 graduate student workers have been on strike for two months as of yesterday. It’s the largest active labor strike in the country. The workers have held strong and Columbia has started to make some substantial concessions.
Jan 05, 2022•13 min
NYC Public Advocate Jumaane Williams speaks on an array of topics including the Omicron variant, how the pandemic is being handled, newly inaugurated NYC mayor Eric Adams and his own bid for Governor.
Jan 05, 2022•24 min
This week's episode on WBAI-99.5 FM features: —Sarmad Akkach, an organizer with the Student Workers of Columbia, gives us the latest update on what's happening at Columbia University where 3,000 graduate student workers have been on strike for two months as of yesterday. It’s the largest active labor strike in the country. The workers have held strong and Columbia has started to make some substantial concessions. —Matthew Thomas, (the Vulgar Marxist on Substack) talks about his latest investigat...
Jan 05, 2022•58 min
This week on Indy News we speak with: —Sean Petty, a pediatric emergency room nurse at Jacobi Medical Center in the Bronx. He is also an activist in the New York State Nurses Association, the union that represents 42,000 nurses in New York. In a March 18, 2020 interview with the Indypendent at the onset of the Covid pandemic in New York, Sean warned “I’m running out of words to describe how dangerous and scary all of this is.” With the Omicron variant sweeping across New York City and the countr...
Dec 30, 2021•59 min
This week on Indy News we speak with Sean Petty, a pediatric emergency room nurse at Jacobi Medical Center in the Bronx. He is also an activist in the New York State Nurses Association, the union that represents 42,000 nurses in New York. In a March 18, 2020 interview with the Indypendent at the onset of the Covid pandemic in New York, Sean warned “I’m running out of words to describe how dangerous and scary all of this is.” With the Omicron variant sweeping across New York City and the country,...
Dec 30, 2021•23 min
This week on Indy News we speak with Amazon Labor Union President Chris Smalls and VP Derrick Palmer to update us on the struggle to unionize Amazon workers. On Dec. 22, for the second time in three months, Staten Island Amazon workers hand-delivered signed cards to a National Labor Relations Board office in Brooklyn, petitioning that the board authorize a union vote. The refiling comes after six weeks of furious organizing by the Amazon Labor Union after withdrawing their first petition. This t...
Dec 30, 2021•16 min
This week on Indy News we speak with Julia Thomas, author of “Rikers Island Transferees Now Held in Maximum Security Prison Where Drinking Water Tastes Like Sewage” from the recent Dec. issue of The Indypendent. Bedford hills, a maximum-security prison in Westchester is experiencing an influx of women and transgender and non-binary people — all held pre-trial — who are being transferred from Rikers Island. The controversial and inhumane transfers, which began in October, come after renewed calls...
Dec 29, 2021•9 min
On this week's Indy News Hour: —Caitlin Liss os the Student Workers or Columbia gives us a live update on increasingly high stakes labor struggle at Columbia University, the nation’s largest active strike of 3,000 students workers against the leaders of a university with a $14.4 billion endowment. The University is threatening to fire them from their jobs if they don’t end their five-week strike by Friday. —President of the New York Postal Workers Union Jonathan Smith talks about the union effor...
Dec 08, 2021•55 min
Evan George, editor of Bostopia News podcast talks about what's afoot in Boston — moves toward free mass transit, a Green New Deal and rent control — with new mayor Michelle Wu in charge. This stands in contrast to NYC where our incoming new mayor is obsessed with more policing and cryptocurrency and to this drift nationally in the Democratic Party of insisting that nothing can or should change very much.
Dec 08, 2021•25 min
President of the New York Postal Workers Union Jonathan Smith talks about the union effort to get the postal service back on track. Biden still hasn't replaced Trump-appointed Postmaster Louis DeJoy, who is implementing measures that aren’t good for customers or workers, like understaffing and raising prices while giving American people less service.
Dec 08, 2021•16 min
Caitlin Liss os the Student Workers or Columbia gives us a live update on increasingly high stakes labor struggle at Columbia University, the nation’s largest active strike of 3,000 students workers against the leaders of a university with a $14.4 billion endowment. The University is threatening to fire them from their jobs if they don’t end their five-week strike by Friday.
Dec 08, 2021•8 min
A new variant of the Coronavirus, the Omicron variant, was just discovered in South Africa. We are faced with the possibility that the new variant may prove resistant to the vaccines that we had hoped to bring the pandemic under control. We speak with author Costas Panayotakis about his recent article for The Indypendent, “Omicron Variant Underscores Why We Must Abolish Global Vaccine Apartheid." Panayotakis is a professor of sociology at the New York City College of Technology (CUNY).
Dec 01, 2021•9 min
In an attempt to curb a surge in overdose deaths caused by increasingly potent street drugs, NYC is authorizing two supervised injection sites in East Harlem and Washington heights. Trained staff at the two sites will provide clean needles, administer naloxone to reverse overdoses and provide users with options for addiction treatment. Users will bring their own drugs. New York will become the first U.S. city to open officially authorized injection sites. We don’t know all the details on these s...
Dec 01, 2021•12 min
In October 2020, without consulting the community, the City announced a high-rise housing development at the corner of Bedford and Church Avenues in Flatbush. The site is the last remaining section of an African Burial Ground dating at least to the 1700s. The Flatbush African Burial Ground Coalition is a group of artists, historians, activists, organizers, lawyers, engineers, and neighbors who are committed to protecting the Flatbush African Burial Ground at 2274 - 2286 Church Avenue. We speak w...
Dec 01, 2021•23 min
