New York City taxi drivers have something to celebrate. Starting in September, they will receive a long-awaited raise, reported The New York Times.

The 45,000 taxi cabs in New York City have been described as the seventh-largest transportation system in the United States—and at the AFL-CIO Innovators webpage, writer Robert Struckman notes:

If you ask a driver, there’s a good chance he or she will tell you, "I’m a member of the National Taxi Workers Alliance (NTWA)."

Yesterday, 282 Cablevision technicians and dispatchers in Brooklyn voted to join the Communications Workers of America (CWA) Local 1109 in a union election administered by the National Labor Relations Board, overcoming a vigorous anti-union campaign led by Cablevision. They are the first Cablevision workers to join a union. Cable TV is an overwhelmingly nonunion industry while the traditional telecommunications industry remains highly unionized.

Today, 285 Brooklyn-based Cablevision workers—the Cablevision 99%—will vote in a election for union representation.

The city of New York helps out taxpayers and retired public employees by sticking with a traditional defined-benefit pension plan rather than a 401(k) model, according to a new report issued by the National Institute on Retirement Security (NIRS). According to the NIRS release describing the report, ”A Better Bang for New York City’s Buck,” which was commissioned by New York City Comptroller John C. Liu:

New York City’s defined-benefit pension plans can deliver the same retirement income at a nearly 40 percent lower cost than a defined contribution 401(k)-type individual account.

In New York City, Wall Street profits are skyscraper high again, real-estate developers and companies are receiving billions in public subsidies and yet a record number of full-time working New Yorkers are relying on food stamps and emergency food assistance because they do not earn enough to support themselves or their families.