Steven Wishnia
@stevewishnia.bsky.social
NYC journalist, writer, and musician. Reporter for Work-Bites, freelance editor, last writer published in the Village Voice. Author of 4 books, including the rock'n'roll novel When the Drumming Stops. Bassist/guitarist in numerous bands since 1979.
For almost 25 years, the NYC government has refused to release records about what it knew about toxins near Ground Zero. The Adams administration has delayed responding to a FOIL request 10 times—but under pressure, it recently 'found' 68 boxes of documents. www.work-bites.com/view-all/911...
‘They Don’t Want People to See’: Group Challenges City’s Delays in Releasing 9/11 Health Documents — Work-Bites
By Steve Wishnia Mayor Eric Adams’ administration won’t turn over records sought by 9/11 Health Watch while he’s in office. For the tenth time since the group filed a Freedom of Information Law req...
www.work-bites.com
December 16, 2025 at 9:12 PM
For almost 25 years, the NYC government has refused to release records about what it knew about toxins near Ground Zero. The Adams administration has delayed responding to a FOIL request 10 times—but under pressure, it recently 'found' 68 boxes of documents. www.work-bites.com/view-all/911...
When the shutdown began Oct. 1, the Education Department altered workers' out-of-office messages to blame "Democrat Senators." Late last week, a federal judge ruled that violated the workers' free-speech rights. www.work-bites.com/view-all/fed...
Education Dept. Violated Furloughed Workers’ Free Speech by Putting Anti-Democrat Messages in Their Email — Work-Bites
By Steve Wishnia The Trump administration violated furloughed federal workers’ free-speech rights during the shutdown when it changed their automated out-of-office email replies to blame “Democrat S...
www.work-bites.com
November 12, 2025 at 5:14 PM
When the shutdown began Oct. 1, the Education Department altered workers' out-of-office messages to blame "Democrat Senators." Late last week, a federal judge ruled that violated the workers' free-speech rights. www.work-bites.com/view-all/fed...
My mother got quoted in the Washington Post.
From a Washington Post story titled "How women feel about Trump’s presidency"
November 11, 2025 at 6:51 PM
My mother got quoted in the Washington Post.
Big story I've been working on. Tenants are suing to stop New York City from privatizing two public-housing projects—a developer will replace them with Section 8, luxury, and "affordable" apartments. The first building to be demolished is senior housing. www.work-bites.com/view-all/nyc...
NYCHA Calls Privatization Model the ‘Best Option’ for Public Housing — Work-Bites
By Steve Wishnia Tenants in three Chelsea public housing buildings slated to be demolished argued Nov. 5 for a court order to stop the New York City Housing Authority [NYCAHA] from trying to ev...
www.work-bites.com
November 7, 2025 at 4:17 PM
Big story I've been working on. Tenants are suing to stop New York City from privatizing two public-housing projects—a developer will replace them with Section 8, luxury, and "affordable" apartments. The first building to be demolished is senior housing. www.work-bites.com/view-all/nyc...
NY City Council staff won their first union contract last year—but a loophole enables re-elected Councilmembers to fire staff without cause in the first two months of their second term. The union protested yesterday. www.work-bites.com/view-all/ale...
NYC Council Staffers Urge Lawmakers to Ignore Contract Loophole, Respect Their Jobs — Work-Bites
By Steve Wishnia City Council staffers rallied outside City Hall Oct. 29, urging the lawmakers not to take advantage of a loophole in their union contract that lets re-elected incumbents fire their ...
www.work-bites.com
October 30, 2025 at 3:53 PM
NY City Council staff won their first union contract last year—but a loophole enables re-elected Councilmembers to fire staff without cause in the first two months of their second term. The union protested yesterday. www.work-bites.com/view-all/ale...
Uber and Lyft drivers in New York have long complained that the companies "deactivate" them—cut them off from the app—without any warning, more than a vague explanation of why, or the ability to challenge it. Here's 1400 words about that. www.work-bites.com/view-all/ulb...
NYC App-Based Drivers: ‘The Law Doesn’t Protect Us From These Giant Companies That Just Suck Our Blood!’ — Work-Bites
By Steve Wishnia More than two-thirds of Uber and Lyft drivers who were “deactivated” say they did not receive any notice before their access to the apps was cut off, according to a survey of 341 fi...
www.work-bites.com
October 30, 2025 at 3:10 AM
Uber and Lyft drivers in New York have long complained that the companies "deactivate" them—cut them off from the app—without any warning, more than a vague explanation of why, or the ability to challenge it. Here's 1400 words about that. www.work-bites.com/view-all/ulb...
My scatological response to our wannabe dictator's enshittification of the U.S. lowerfrequencies.substack.com/p/guest-post...
GUEST POST: Scheisskrieg! Trump's AI Slop-Jar Video Is a Perfect Metaphor for His Presidency
In an AI-generated video, Trump shits on everything we value and everyone we care about.
lowerfrequencies.substack.com
October 27, 2025 at 2:51 AM
My scatological response to our wannabe dictator's enshittification of the U.S. lowerfrequencies.substack.com/p/guest-post...
"What’s at stake here is our democracy." My story on the labor march that fed into the New York No Kings Day rally. www.work-bites.com/view-all/nyc...
NYC Unions March On ‘No Kings Day’ — Work-Bites
By Steve Wishnia “What’s at stake here is our democracy,” Charles Jenkins, president of the New York chapter of the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists, told Work-Bites as thousands of people assembl...
www.work-bites.com
October 20, 2025 at 4:31 PM
"What’s at stake here is our democracy." My story on the labor march that fed into the New York No Kings Day rally. www.work-bites.com/view-all/nyc...
Wage theft has been built into New York State's home health-care system for decades, with attendants who do 24-hour shifts paid for only 13 hours. They are demanding that the state Department of Labor reopen investigations into wage theft. www.work-bites.com/view-all/hoc...
Home Care Workers to Hochul: ‘We’re Not Going to Accept Crumbs!’ — Work-Bites
By Steve Wishnia Almost a year after a judge told the state Department of Labor that it had wrongly closed hundreds of wage-theft investigations, home health attendants and supporters demanded that ...
www.work-bites.com
October 9, 2025 at 3:09 PM
Wage theft has been built into New York State's home health-care system for decades, with attendants who do 24-hour shifts paid for only 13 hours. They are demanding that the state Department of Labor reopen investigations into wage theft. www.work-bites.com/view-all/hoc...
Mac McGill, 1958-2005. His memory will be a blessing; his loss leaves a void in our lives.
Our friend and compatriot Mac McGill has passed.
He was a remarkably warm person and amazing artist. He contributed to @ww3illustrated.bsky.social for decades and this is only one of his beautiful works for the magazine. RIP
#MacMcgill
He was a remarkably warm person and amazing artist. He contributed to @ww3illustrated.bsky.social for decades and this is only one of his beautiful works for the magazine. RIP
#MacMcgill
October 2, 2025 at 4:31 PM
Mac McGill, 1958-2005. His memory will be a blessing; his loss leaves a void in our lives.
NYC municipal union leaders approve new health-insurance plan despite protests from members who want to see the fine print. www.work-bites.com/view-all/mlc...
‘Don’t Bother Me!’ MLC OKs New Health Plan for NYC Workers Over Ongoing Protests — Work-Bites
By Steve Wishnia The city’s Municipal Labor Committee overwhelmingly approved a new health-insurance plan for current city workers and pre-Medicare retirees on Sept. 30, as protesters objected that ...
www.work-bites.com
October 2, 2025 at 4:28 PM
NYC municipal union leaders approve new health-insurance plan despite protests from members who want to see the fine print. www.work-bites.com/view-all/mlc...
American Desaparecidos: Trump's War on Immigrants. www.work-bites.com/view-all/swt...
American Desaparecidos: Trump’s War on Immigrants — Work-Bites
By Steve Wishnia More than 100 days after he was abducted from Maryland by ICE agents and shipped to El Salvador’s notorious CECOT prison, Kilmar Abrego Garcia is still in jail. After nearly three m...
www.work-bites.com
June 30, 2025 at 1:05 PM
American Desaparecidos: Trump's War on Immigrants. www.work-bites.com/view-all/swt...
Medicaid pays for 50% of emergency-room visits and 58% of births in New York City. Republicans in Congress want to cut it by almost $1 trillion. They're also going after New York State's low-cost Essential Plan insurance by excluding legal immigrants from it. www.work-bites.com/view-all/med...
NYC Health-Care Workers Mobilize Against Massive Medicaid Cuts — Work-Bites
By Steve Wishnia “Medicaid!” “Saves lives!” health-care workers chanted in call-and- response outside New York-Presbyterian Hospital in Washington Heights June 23. The overhead passageway between tw...
www.work-bites.com
June 24, 2025 at 7:17 PM
Medicaid pays for 50% of emergency-room visits and 58% of births in New York City. Republicans in Congress want to cut it by almost $1 trillion. They're also going after New York State's low-cost Essential Plan insurance by excluding legal immigrants from it. www.work-bites.com/view-all/med...
Last year, the Biden administration proposed the first ever federal standards on exposure to heat on the job. OSHA is holding hearings on them this week, and Trump and corporate interests object to things like requiring breaks when the temperature is over 90°F. www.work-bites.com/view-all/you...
‘You Get Cooked Like a Microwave’: OSHA Considers Heat-Safety Rules—But Trump Team Is Opposed — Work-Bites
By Steve Wishnia “I’m somewhat surprised to see this hearing kept on the schedule,” Marc Freedman of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce told an Occupational Safety and Health Administration panel June 16,...
www.work-bites.com
June 19, 2025 at 2:47 PM
Last year, the Biden administration proposed the first ever federal standards on exposure to heat on the job. OSHA is holding hearings on them this week, and Trump and corporate interests object to things like requiring breaks when the temperature is over 90°F. www.work-bites.com/view-all/you...
More than 20,000 people at a nonprofit coop in Queens are fighting monthly increases of as much as 57%, while residents of two Manhattan housing projects are facing the city's privatization-and-demolition plan. My latest for Work-Bites. www.work-bites.com/view-all/dem...
Thanks for Helping to Keep the City & State Running, NYCHA Residents…Don’t Let the Wrecking Ball Hit You in the Behind! — Work-Bites
By Steve Wishnia The best time for housing in New York was the post-World War II period, says Renee Keitt, head of the tenant association at the Elliott-Chelsea Houses in Manhattan. It was the era w...
www.work-bites.com
June 10, 2025 at 7:38 PM
More than 20,000 people at a nonprofit coop in Queens are fighting monthly increases of as much as 57%, while residents of two Manhattan housing projects are facing the city's privatization-and-demolition plan. My latest for Work-Bites. www.work-bites.com/view-all/dem...
Bob Hennelly of Work-Bites did this excellent piece on Newark Mayor Ras Baraka's arrest by ICE.
I think states need to start prosecuting the Trump junta for things like false arrest, kidnapping, and extortion. www.work-bites.com/view-all/bar...
I think states need to start prosecuting the Trump junta for things like false arrest, kidnapping, and extortion. www.work-bites.com/view-all/bar...
‘Gestapo Nation’ - Inside the ICE Arrest of Newark Mayor Ras Baraka — Work-Bites
By Bob Hennelly On Friday, federal immigration police seized Newark Mayor Ras Baraka off of a public street outside Delaney Hall, a controversial private prison, operated by the GEO Corporation...
www.work-bites.com
May 13, 2025 at 4:11 PM
Bob Hennelly of Work-Bites did this excellent piece on Newark Mayor Ras Baraka's arrest by ICE.
I think states need to start prosecuting the Trump junta for things like false arrest, kidnapping, and extortion. www.work-bites.com/view-all/bar...
I think states need to start prosecuting the Trump junta for things like false arrest, kidnapping, and extortion. www.work-bites.com/view-all/bar...
And another protest from last Thursday: Home health-care workers trying to end 24-hour shifts where they only get paid for 13 hours, combining with retired New York City workers trying to stop the government from taking away their Medicare. www.work-bites.com/view-all/hom...
NYC Home Care Workers and Retirees ‘Fight for Their Lives’ As City Council Speaker Focuses On Mayoral Bid — Work-Bites
By Steve Wishnia The amplified first half of a chant calling out City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams could be heard a block west of City Hall May 1, as several hundred people filled the sidewalk for...
www.work-bites.com
May 4, 2025 at 9:21 PM
And another protest from last Thursday: Home health-care workers trying to end 24-hour shifts where they only get paid for 13 hours, combining with retired New York City workers trying to stop the government from taking away their Medicare. www.work-bites.com/view-all/hom...
Solidarity Vs. Cruelty: My article on last Thursday's protest in New York. www.work-bites.com/view-all/may...
Solidarity vs. Cruelty: Thousands in NYC Protest Trump-Musk Destruction — Work-Bites
By Steve Wishnia Thousands of people crammed Foley Square May Day for a May 1 rally and march to protest basically everything the Trump-Musk regime is doing. “100 Days of Cruelty is Enough” read one...
www.work-bites.com
May 4, 2025 at 9:19 PM
Solidarity Vs. Cruelty: My article on last Thursday's protest in New York. www.work-bites.com/view-all/may...
RIP David Thomas from Pere Ubu. www.youtube.com/watch?v=-4vy...
Pere Ubu - Over My Head
YouTube video by cookingvinylarchive
www.youtube.com
April 24, 2025 at 5:07 PM
RIP David Thomas from Pere Ubu. www.youtube.com/watch?v=-4vy...
New York State has a 5¢-a-share tax on stock sales—but since 1981, it's been rebating all payments to Wall Street. "We could have billions for trains, for housing," state Sen. James Sanders, sponsor of a bill to revive the tax, told a rally yesterday. www.work-bites.com/view-all/stt...
Rebating the Stock Transfer Tax is Called the ‘Dumbest’ Thing NY Has Ever Done—So, Why Are We Still Doing it? — Work-Bites
By Steve Wishnia New York State has been rebating billions of dollars in stock-sales taxes to Wall Street for more than 40 years—and legislators and activists are making another try to change that.
www.work-bites.com
April 24, 2025 at 4:58 PM
New York State has a 5¢-a-share tax on stock sales—but since 1981, it's been rebating all payments to Wall Street. "We could have billions for trains, for housing," state Sen. James Sanders, sponsor of a bill to revive the tax, told a rally yesterday. www.work-bites.com/view-all/stt...
My third article in the past week on Kilmar Abrego Garcia. The level of blatant lies, racist motives, and deprivation of basic human rights is astounding. www.work-bites.com/view-all/0t4...
Trump Régime Says Federal Courts Have No Power to Return Abrego Garcia — Work-Bites
By Steve Wishnia Joined by El Salvador’s self-styled dictator Nayib Bukele, the Trump regime on Apr. 14 escalated its defiance of multiple court orders to “facilitate” the return of Salvadoran immig...
www.work-bites.com
April 16, 2025 at 4:50 PM
My third article in the past week on Kilmar Abrego Garcia. The level of blatant lies, racist motives, and deprivation of basic human rights is astounding. www.work-bites.com/view-all/0t4...
Trump junta still stonewalling on Kilmar Abrego Garcia, telling a court yesterday they don't know where he is. They were the ones who kidnapped him. www.work-bites.com/view-all/kil...
Building Trades to Trump: Bring Kilmar Home! — Work-Bites
By Steve Wishnia With the Trump regime’s minions defying court orders to turn over information about deported Salvadoran immigrant Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s whereabouts, labor unions are calling on the...
www.work-bites.com
April 12, 2025 at 9:57 PM
Trump junta still stonewalling on Kilmar Abrego Garcia, telling a court yesterday they don't know where he is. They were the ones who kidnapped him. www.work-bites.com/view-all/kil...
Kilmar Abrego Garcia is a union apprentice sheet-metal worker kidnapped by the Trump administration, which is now insisting that the courts have no power to order him returned from El Salvador's worst prison. www.work-bites.com/view-all/she...
Trump Insists Union Apprentice Is a Terrorist With No Rights — Work-Bites
By Steve Wishnia To the Trump regime, 29-year-old Salvadoran immigrant Kilmar Abrego Garcia is an “enemy alien.” In a brief filed with the Supreme Court April 7, Solicitor General D. John Sauer call...
www.work-bites.com
April 10, 2025 at 4:08 PM
Kilmar Abrego Garcia is a union apprentice sheet-metal worker kidnapped by the Trump administration, which is now insisting that the courts have no power to order him returned from El Salvador's worst prison. www.work-bites.com/view-all/she...
Yesterday was the 114th anniversary of the Triangle Fire. I wrote about it for Work-Bites—with an angle inspired by an incessantly inquisitive 5-year-old's question. www.work-bites.com/view-all/tri...
The Triangle Factory Fire Dead are Speaking to the Trump Era — Work-Bites
By Steve Wishnia Last weekend, I read my 5-year-old granddaughter Brave Girl: Clara and the Shirtwaist Makers’ Strike of 1909 , Michelle Markel’s children’s book about Clara Lemlich, the young woma...
www.work-bites.com
March 26, 2025 at 4:30 PM
Yesterday was the 114th anniversary of the Triangle Fire. I wrote about it for Work-Bites—with an angle inspired by an incessantly inquisitive 5-year-old's question. www.work-bites.com/view-all/tri...
Click on this and get zapped by a Jewish space laser! (Or a Latvian fuzzbox?) stevewishniaspurplenoise.bandcamp.com/track/jewish...
Jewish Space Laser, by Steve Wishnia's Purple Noise
track by Steve Wishnia's Purple Noise
stevewishniaspurplenoise.bandcamp.com
March 7, 2025 at 9:48 PM
Click on this and get zapped by a Jewish space laser! (Or a Latvian fuzzbox?) stevewishniaspurplenoise.bandcamp.com/track/jewish...