October 27, 2025 | CINCINNATI, OH—I am urgently speaking out today on behalf of working people across this community and this state. Every day, people get up at dawn, punch the clock, care for their families, stretch every dollar in tight budgets, and still do everything they can to make ends meet. And now theirContinue reading “Statement by Brian D Griffin | Executive Secretary-Treasurer, Cincinnati AFL-CIO Central Labor Council”
Author Archives: Bosco O'Brian
Stockholm Syndrome and the Labor Movement
Stockholm Syndrome describes how hostages sometimes identify with their captors, believing cooperation or small concessions might spare them greater harm. In today’s labor movement, we see echoes of that same instinct. Too often we find ourselves nuzzling up to the very forces that are cutting us down, hoping to soften the blow. But it willContinue reading “Stockholm Syndrome and the Labor Movement”
From Bartlet to McAvoy: America’s Dream and Its Reckoning
When Aaron Sorkin gave us President Josiah Edward Bartlet in The West Wing (1999), he gave Democrats a dream. Bartlet was brilliant and flawed, moral and principled. He made politics feel noble again. He quoted scripture and Nobel economics in the same breath, believing government could still be smart, decent, and good. For a partyContinue reading “From Bartlet to McAvoy: America’s Dream and Its Reckoning”
Diminished by Every Death: Guns, Rhetoric, and the Soul of America
Charlie Kirk’s assassination is tragic, but it is not an isolated wound. Daily gun deaths, toxic rhetoric, and unchecked access to weapons are hollowing out our nation — and we refuse to act. “No man is an island. Any man’s death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind.” John Donne wrote those words fourContinue reading “Diminished by Every Death: Guns, Rhetoric, and the Soul of America”
A Call to the Constitutional Conservatives of My Time
There was a time when Republicans prided themselves on being the party of the Constitution. A time when words like accountability, limited government, and fidelity to the rule of law meant more than party loyalty. The Republican Party I grew up with would never have tolerated, let alone celebrated, the abuses we now see fromContinue reading “A Call to the Constitutional Conservatives of My Time”
Labor Day Is Not a Holiday. It’s a Battle Cry.
Last year, 5,283 American workers were killed on the job. They died in fields and factories, in construction zones and warehouses, on highways and hospital floors. When you add work-related illnesses—cancers, respiratory diseases, long-term exposures—the toll soars to over 140,000 lives lost. That’s more than the population of a mid-sized American city, wiped out inContinue reading “Labor Day Is Not a Holiday. It’s a Battle Cry.”
Wake Up! This Is Not Normal, or Acceptable!
Imagine if President Barack Obama had governed the way our current president governs today. Picture him dismantling the federal workforce by executive order, stripping away civil service protections without a vote of Congress. Imagine him directing the Department of Justice to investigate and prosecute his political enemies, or attempting to fire members of the FederalContinue reading “Wake Up! This Is Not Normal, or Acceptable!”
Medicaid Cuts Put Thousands of Hamilton County Residents at Risk of Losing Healthcare
The recent moves to impose new Medicaid work requirements and funding restrictions are raising serious concerns across Ohio, and nowhere more urgently than in Hamilton County. Estimates suggest tens of thousands of residents here could lose their healthcare coverage if the cuts move forward, adding to the strain on families, local health providers, and alreadyContinue reading “Medicaid Cuts Put Thousands of Hamilton County Residents at Risk of Losing Healthcare”
Who’s Really Erasing What?
A Look at “Erasure Culture” on the Left and Right The word erasure means the act or instance of erasing. It can be as simple as wiping chalk off a board or as complex as removing people, ideas, or histories from public memory. In today’s political climate, erasure has become a loaded term, often usedContinue reading “Who’s Really Erasing What?”
Six Months In: The Labor Movement Stands Between Tyranny and Democracy
Six months into the 47th presidency, the American Labor Movement is being tested—not only in its strength, but in its identity. Are we merely negotiating wages and benefits, or are we fighting for the soul of a democratic society? The current administration has made its position crystal clear. More than 60 regulatory rollbacks have beenContinue reading “Six Months In: The Labor Movement Stands Between Tyranny and Democracy”
Why Eye Write 