City Works is a monthly news magazine program produced by the CUNY School of Labor and Urban Studies (SLU) in collaboration with CUNY TV and hosted by Laura Flanders. The show’s mission is to create is a visual and thematic presentation of work, workers and worker organizations, employing topical examinations of the changing nature of work, tributes to unsung heroes, and analysis of the enduring challenges faced by workers. The show will spotlight the vast array of occupations of working people across New York City, and explore individual and collective efforts to make a better life for workers and a more prosperous and equitable society.

Air Time City Works airs Mon. – Thur. at 12 noon (new episodes premiere on the first Monday of the month).

Latest Episode

Adjunct Faculty: The Growing Crisis in Higher Ed

On this episode of City Works, Laura Flanders sits down with James Davis, President of the Professional Staff Congress here at CUNY, and Anne Balay, a labor historian and organizer with SEIU Local 509 in Boston, to talk about the condition of adjunct professors at colleges around the country. Referred to as “contingent” by organizers, these teachers and staff see less pay, no benefits, and little certainty of future employment, but are being given increasingly more of the workload by schools looking to cut costs. The three discuss these challenges, and the organizing efforts aimed at alleviating them.

Previous Episodes

Host

Headshot of Laura Flanders Laura Flanders is a best-selling author and broadcaster. After many years in public and commercial radio, she founded The Laura Flanders Show / GRITtv in 2008 to serve as an online channel for in depth conversations with forward-thinking people from the worlds of politics, economics, business and the artsAmerica Radio (2004-2008) before which she was the founding host of Your Call, on public radio, KALW, and CounterSpin, the nationally-syndicated radio program from the mediawatch group FAIR.

Production Team

The show is a collaboration between CUNY TV and the CUNY School of Labor and Urban Studies. Chiqui Cartagena, the station’s Interim Executive Director and Gregory Mantsios, the School’s Dean are executive producer. Rose Imperato is a co-producer along with Joseph Montalbano of CUNY TV. Carl Ginsburg is senior consultant and scriptwriter and Paula Finn is a consulting producer.

CUNY TV

The City University of New York’s television station, CUNY TV, has been educating and informing viewers for more than three decades. Established in 1985, the station has steadily increased its ambition and scope, in 2009 transitioning to high definition and adding over-the-air broadcasting to its existing cable distribution. Now reaching 7.3 million broadcast households in the New York metro area, CUNY TV is committed to extending the academic mission of the university to offer lifelong learning opportunities to all New Yorkers.