I was honored to be in New York City yesterday supporting Wendy's workers take to the streets for a living wage. They joined hundreds of workers in other fast-food joints across New York City for the largest strike the fast-food industry had ever seen.

The Nontraditional Employment for Women (NEW) program in New York City prepares women for careers in construction and related industries through an innovative training and placement program that guides low-income women toward a meaningful career and solid financial footing.

New York City workers would receive five paid sick days a year under a measure the New York City Council will vote on soon. The New York Times reports the paid sick leave bill is expected to pass with enough votes to override Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s promised veto.

A powerful coalition of workers, unions and community groups mobilized around the issue that had been bottled up in the City Council. The groups were able to come to an agreement with Council Speaker Christine C. Quinn to bring the paid sick leave measure to a vote.

New York's minimum wage is $7.25 an hour. For food service workers who rely on tips, that amount is only $5.00. In some states, tipped workers make as little as $2.13 an hour. Check out this new video from New York City food service workers and members of the Restaurant Opportunities Center of New York (ROC-NY) who're raising awareness that the minimum wage needs to be raised.

The Communications Workers of America (CWA) reported that today, 23 Brooklyn Cablevision workers were illegally fired after attempting to discuss the lack of good-faith bargaining by the company with their management and expressing support for their bargaining committee—protected activities by federal law. The CWA, which the workers voted to join a year ago, condemned the firings as an illegal and outrageous attack on the company’s hardworking employees. Last week, CWA had filed unfair labor practice charges, alleging bad-faith bargaining by Cablevision-Optimum.

While New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg continues to vilify the striking drivers, bus matrons and the Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) as "greedy villains" bankrupting the city, New York Daily News columnist Denis Hamill paints a real-life picture in a recent column. He profiles Vic and Lucy DiBitetto—a school bus driver and matron on the same Staten Island bus route caring for kids with autism, multiple sclerosis and physical and developmental challenges.

Current and former employees of Flat Rate Movers and Mystique clothing stores received good news yesterday. New York Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman announced these 400 workers will receive restitution funds for unpaid overtime and minimum wage violations. The 306 current and former employees of Flat Rate Movers, a multistate moving and storage company with headquarters in New York City, are being paid $1.13 million. Approximately 100 employees of Mystique in New York City have also begun receiving restitution as part of a $950,000 settlement.

Check out the AFL-CIO's new In Our Communities website feature, "Just Employers: Park Slope Parents Advocate for Domestic Workers’ Rights."

In 2010, New York ratified landmark legislation for domestic workers, a group excluded from the legal protections—such as the right to organize and collectively bargain—granted by the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938. The Domestic Workers’ Bill of Rights gave domestic workers the right to overtime pay, paid days of rest and protection against sexual or racial harassment.

Fast-food workers in New York City today walked off the job to protest what they said "were low wages and retaliation against several workers who have backed the unionization campaign," writes Steve Greenhouse of the New York Times. 

Aspiring citizens in New York City are not going anywhere after Superstorm Sandy devastated parts of the region. They are pitching in to help rebuild what was lost. Latino workers and day laborers organized themselves with assistance from El Centro del Inmigrante, which advocates for the economic advancement and well-being of immigrant workers and their families, to form the the Staten Island Day Laborer Hurricane Relief Brigade and other cleanup volunteer groups. Day laborers have volunteered to clean up New York City neighborhoods, including restaurants affected in Coney Island.