Eric Adams’ Appointments Kick Up Old Scandal + Amazon Workers Continue Union Fight
No 250
Tuesday, December 28, 2021
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Local News:
- Incoming deputy mayor Sheena Wright, incoming schools chancellor David Banks, and top Eric Adams advisor and former NYPD chief Philip Banks III were entangled in a messy 2013 dispute that allegedly involved Philip Banks III interfering in Wright’s arrest for assault. Banks III resigned shortly after due to a bribery scandal.
- Mayor-elect Eric Adams named Lorraine Grillo, current senior adviser on pandemic recovery to Mayor Bill de Blasio, as his top deputy mayor. He also appointed Manhattan city council member Ydanis Rodriguez to lead the Transportation Department.
- 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 Amazon Labor Union claims the company fired workers who signed union cards in their initial petition, but is prepared for a more difficult fight this time around.
- Four university-led teams are in the final stretch to win the right to build a new center for climate change and resiliency research on Governors Island, with proposals calling for everything from a “living lab” to deep-sea explorations. The finalists for the project are teams from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Northeastern University, Stony Brook University, and a group co-led by CUNY and The New School.
- New York State Attorney General Letitia James urged New Yorkers experiencing price gouging for at-home COVID-19 tests to report examples to her office.
- Governor Hochul signed a law that would eliminate some barriers to opioid treatment that targeted people on Medicaid.
- DC 37, the largest union representing the city’s municipal employees, called for the mayor to institute a telework policy covering city workers.
- New York City officials announced that they would open an additional 23 coronavirus testing sites to try to meet surging demand driven by the Omicron variant.
- The Capitol Pressroom hosted NYC-DSA co-chair Sumathy Kumar to discuss the chapter’s 2022 goals in Albany.
Elections:
- City & State breaks down what went wrong in Attorney General Tish James’ brief campaign for governor.
- Mayor-elect Eric Adams postponed his in-person joint inauguration ceremony with incoming City Comptroller Brad Lander and Public Advocate Jumaane Williams in light of New York’s surging coronavirus cases. The ceremony was originally planned to be held inside Brooklyn’s Kings Theatre.