Labor Politics in Gotham
DOGE continues to attack unions
New York City’s primary election is tomorrow. Like most major Democratic primaries, labor is divided over mayoral endorsements: AFSCME DC 37, the city’s largest municipal workers union, OPEIU Local 153 (full disclosure: I consult with OPEIU and work closely with that local), UAW Region 9A, and some smaller unions have lined up behind insurgent democratic socialist candidate Zohran Mamdani, who has pledged a $30/hour minimum wage and free bus fares—the latter policy which has endorsed by Transport Workers Union President John Samuelsen for the potential to reduce rampant assaults on bus drivers, which contribute to driver shortages. SEIU 1199 and 32BJ, the Building Trades, and the New York Hotel Trades Council (which has the most sophisticated turnout operation in the city) are backing Andrew Cuomo. Some of these endorsements are likely a testament to relationships that Cuomo built as Governor: right before he resigned from office amid a sexual harassment scandal, Cuomo signed an excellent piece of legislation capping nursing home profiteering, that likely endeared him to both sides of 1199’s recent internecine battle where insurgents were victorious. The progressive New York State Nurses Association has likely stayed neutral due to Cuomo signing modest safe staffing legislation in 2021. Likewise, Cuomo was mostly committed to Project Labor Agreements as Governor, enhancing his base of support with the Building Trades. But for other unions, this appears to be about fear: the Hotel Trades have won a transformative crackdown on Airbnb under de Blasio and Adams, and a Mayor Cuomo committed to rolling those protections back would be disastrous for the union. For unions that have backed Mamdani, history also plays a role: Cuomo relentlessly antagonized DC 37 as Governor, both by passing the Tier 6 pension reform and being implicated in Bloomberg’s layoff of DC 37 school aides.
The latest independent poll shows Mamdani squeaking into the lead—but no matter what, it appears likely that both Cuomo and Mamdani will be on the November ballot, with Cuomo running on his “Fight and Deliver” ballot line and Mamdani likely to receive the Working Families Party ballot line. Even if Cuomo pulls out a primary win tomorrow, it’s easy to see Mamdani winning an upset in the general election—the polling trajectory shows that the more people get to know Mamdani, the more people vote for him, and Mamdani polls best with young people and men, who are less likely to view themselves as Democrats. (Of course, Democratic leadership polling at record lows helps with the gaming out of this scenario as well.) The one theoretical general election poll shows that Cuomo barely gains any ground among Democratic primary voters in a general election if he wins tomorrow—although it is conceivable to say that he may pick up more union endorsements.
News and Views
New York state’s comptroller has been writing to private equity firms and warning them against union busting in their portfolio companies, New York Focus reports. It comes as there is increasing interest among pension funds to do something about the fact that the private equity firms that invest their money — and employ more than 13 million workers — are engaged in destructive labor practices.
Musk left DOGE, but the White House’s attacks on workers and federal unions continue. “Despite the administration’s claim that President Trump is “putting American workers first,” the White House and federal agency heads are trying to end collective bargaining for more than 1 million government workers; hobble the agency overseeing collective bargaining rights for workers in the private sector; and cut the minimum wage for hundreds of thousands of federal contractors,” the Center for American Progress writes.
Utah voters will decide in 2026 whether to protect the right of its public sector workers to unionize. This year, the state legislature passed a bill banning public sector collective bargaining, which was signed by Republican Governor Spencer Cox over massive public opposition. The law won’t go into effect for now, because labor groups secured the signatures they needed to put the issue to a ballot referendum, just scheduled for November 2026.