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Dockworkers Vote to Accept New Labor Contract

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Dockworkers Vote to Accept New Labor Contract

Dockworkers on the East and Gulf Coasts voted in favor of a new contract on Tuesday, ending labor turbulence at ports that handle a large share of U.S. trade with the rest of the world.

The dockworkers’ union, the International Longshoremen’s Association, said nearly 99 percent of its members had supported the contract, which raises wages 62 percent over six years and guarantees jobs when employers introduce technology that can move cargo autonomously.

The deal was reached after a short strike in October, the first full-scale walkout since 1977, and the intervention of two U.S. presidents.

Officials from the Biden administration pushed the United States Maritime Alliance, the group representing employers, to increase its wage offer, which ended the strike and brought the I.LA. back to the bargaining table. After his election victory, Donald J. Trump backed the union, saying he supported their fight against automation.

“This is an incredible contract package,” Harold J. Daggett, the president of the I.L.A., said in a statement.

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Dockworkers have significant leverage in contract talks because they can shut down ports, throwing supply chains into chaos. But labor experts said Mr. Daggett had bolstered the union’s cause by calling a strike and by establishing strong ties with Mr. Trump.

“The only way they would have gotten a deal like this was through striking, showing that they had the economic power and, it turns out, the political power,” said William Brucher, an assistant professor at the Rutgers School of Management and Labor Relations.

All 41 members of the Maritime Alliance, a group that includes port operating companies and shipping lines, voted for the contract, which covers the roughly 25,000 longshoremen who move containers on the East and Gulf Coasts.

Under the contact, hourly wages will rise to $63 in 2029, from the current $39. That is comparable to the pay for dockworkers on the West Coast, represented by the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, whose wages will rise to nearly $61 in 2027.

With overtime and higher rates for working at night, longshoremen can earn well over $200,000 a year.

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The I.L.A. has long opposed the introduction of automated cranes and other machines.

Like the old contract, the new one bars employers from deploying machinery that can operate at all times without a person directing its moves. The West Coast longshoremen’s union has allowed such technology — like driverless container-moving vehicles — at its ports for years.

But the I.L.A.’s new contract does not stop employers from adding cranes that can at times perform tasks — like stacking containers — without direction from a human. And the new contract makes it easier for employers to introduce such cranes.

Still, the union got a job guarantee that management would assign at least one worker for each additional crane. (Now, one union worker might remotely oversee and operate several cranes at once.)

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Video: New York City Nurses Go on Strike

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Video: New York City Nurses Go on Strike

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New York City Nurses Go on Strike

Nearly 15,000 nurses at major New York City hospitals went on strike on Monday, demanding more robust staffing levels, higher pay and better safety precautions.

Chanting: “If we don’t get it — shut it down! “How can we as nurses be inside taking care of patients when we don’t have health care? We need to have good health care so we stay strong, so we can go in there day after day. Nursing is a 24/7 job. We don’t get a break. We’re there to take care of these patients, and that’s what we’re going to do. But we need the health care to do that.” “All parties must return immediately to the negotiating table and not leave. They must bargain in good faith.” “That’s right.” “And they must arrive at a deal that is satisfactory to all, that allows the nurses who work in this city to live in this city.”

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Nearly 15,000 nurses at major New York City hospitals went on strike on Monday, demanding more robust staffing levels, higher pay and better safety precautions.

By Meg Felling

January 12, 2026

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Video: Hochul and Mamdani Announce Plan for Universal Child Care

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Video: Hochul and Mamdani Announce Plan for Universal Child Care

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Hochul and Mamdani Announce Plan for Universal Child Care

Gov. Kathy Hochul and Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced a plan on Thursday to vastly expand free and low-cost child care for families across the state in the coming years and add programs for 2-year-olds.

“Today, we’re working together with the mayor at this incredible place to announce the first major steps to make child care universal — truly universal — here in New York City, transforming the lives of children and parents all across the state.” “We will build on the city’s existing three-K program, and say, no longer will a family in Flatbush be offered a seat, but have to find out that seat is in Astoria. We will add seats in the neighborhoods where demand has not been met. This will be felt by expanded subsidies for tens of thousands of additional families. It will be felt when parents look at their bank accounts at the end of the year, and see that they have saved more than $20,000 per child.” “And today, I’m proud to announce that New York State is paying the full cost to launch 2-care. For the first time — universal daycare for 2-year-olds, as proposed by Mayor Mamdani. We’re not just paying for one year of the program. We don’t usually go one year out in our budget, but just to let you know how serious we are, we’re taking the unprecedented step to not just commit for the 2027 budget, which I’m working on right now, but also the following year as well to show you we’re in this for the long haul.”

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Gov. Kathy Hochul and Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced a plan on Thursday to vastly expand free and low-cost child care for families across the state in the coming years and add programs for 2-year-olds.

By Meg Felling

January 8, 2026

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Vote on the 17 Ways Mamdani Could Improve NYC

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Vote on the 17 Ways Mamdani Could Improve NYC

A new mayor, a fresh start — you know the drill. There are as many ideas out there for how Zohran Mamdani can now improve New York’s urban environment as there are New Yorkers.

I canvassed a few dozen planners, architects, academics, community leaders, neighborhood organizers, developers, housing and transit experts and former city government officials. I gave them no budgets or time lines. They gave me a mayoral to-do list of ideas big, small, familiar, deep in the weeds, fanciful and timely.

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What follows is a small selection, with some kibitzing by me. You can vote “love it” or “skip it” below and help determine the ranking of priorities. Feel free to leave eye rolls and alternative proposals in the comments section.

Check back in the coming days to see how the ranking has changed and we will let you know the ultimate results on Jan. 13.

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Get your votes in before polls close on Jan. 12, 2026.

1

Create many thousands more affordable housing units by converting some of the city’s public golf courses into mixed income developments, with garden allotments and wetlands.

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2

Deck over Robert Moses’s Cross Bronx Expressway and create a spectacular new park.

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3

Devise a network of dedicated lanes for e-bikes and electric scooters so they will endanger fewer bicyclists and pedestrians.

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4

Pedestrianize Lower Manhattan. Not even 10 percent of people there arrive by car.

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5

Build more mental health crisis centers citywide.

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6

Provide more clean, safe public pay toilets that don’t cost taxpayers $1 million apiece.

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7

Convert more coastline into spongy marshes, akin to what exists at Hunter’s Point South Park in Queens, to mitigate rising seas and floods.

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8

Dedicate more of the city budget to public libraries and parks, the lifeblood of many neighborhoods, crucial to public health and climate resilience. The city devotes barely 2 percent of its funds to them now.

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9

Follow through on the Adams administration’s $400 million makeover of once-glamorous Fifth Avenue from Central Park South to Bryant Park, with wider sidewalks, reduced lanes of traffic, and more trees, restaurants, bikes and pedestrian-friendly stretches.

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10

Do away with free street parking and enforce parking placard rules. New York’s curbside real estate is priceless public land, and only a small fraction of residents own cars.

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11

Open the soaring vaults under the Brooklyn Bridge to create shops, restaurants, a farmers’ market and public library in nascent Gotham Park.

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13

Persuade Google, JPMorgan or some other city-vested megacorporation to help improve the acoustics as well as Wi-Fi in subways, along the lines of Citibank sponsoring Citi Bikes.

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14

Overhaul freight deliveries to get more 18-wheelers off city streets, free up traffic, reduce noise, improve public safety and streamline supply chains.

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15

Rein in City Hall bureaucracy around new construction. The city’s Department of Design and Construction is full of good people but a longtime hot mess at completing public projects.

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16

Convert more streets and intersections into public plazas and pocket parks. Like the pedestrianization of parts of Broadway, this Bloomberg-era initiative has proved to be good for businesses and neighborhoods.

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17

Stop playing Russian roulette with a crumbling highway and repair the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway before it collapses.

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