This column originally appeared in The Politics Brief, our weekly newsletter on the people, power and policies that shape New Yorkers’ lives.<\/p>\n
Sign up<\/a> to get the full version where you can ask questions, share news tips and weigh in on the conversation. Hits inboxes on Wednesdays.<\/p>\n Mayor Zohran Mamdani has positioned himself as a staunch ally to workers, endorsing a boycott of Starbucks while its baristas were on strike shortly after his election and then joining union nurses on the picket line<\/a>. But that warm embrace has mostly been reserved for workers in the private sector.<\/p>\n Mamdani has taken a much cooler approach in his dealings with New York City\u2019s public sector unions. Last week, when Mamdani announced the creation of a new Office of Worker Power at City Hall, he was flanked by hotel workers, Amazon delivery drivers, and home health aides as he signed the executive order. Teachers, firefighters and sanitation workers were noticeably absent.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen workers have power, this city works better for everyone,\u201d Mamdani said.<\/p>\n The Mamdani administration is meanwhile seeking to block $10,000 bonuses<\/a> for paraprofessionals, arguing the payments violate state collective bargaining law. Mamdani had supported the payments while campaigning for mayor, and they have been a priority for the city\u2019s influential teachers\u2019 union.<\/p>\n \u201c\u200aWe’ve been trying for over a year-and-a-half now to solve this crisis, and they have not been willing to do it,\u201d United Federation of Teachers President Michael Mulgrew said in an interview. \u201cThis precedes this administration, this mayor, but he\u2019s still responsible for his agencies.\u201d<\/p>\n All of this comes as contracts covering hundreds of thousands of municipal workers begin to expire<\/a> this fall and City Hall prepares for its first round of possibly contentious bargaining sessions.<\/p>\n \u201cThe administration is proud to stand with both public and private sector workers as we build a city that works for working people,\u201d said Deputy Press Secretary Cassio Mendoza, adding that City Hall is in frequent contact with all of the city\u2019s public sector unions.<\/p>\n In a letter to members earlier this year, Henry Garrido, executive director of DC37, the city\u2019s largest municipal union, expressed optimism about the future negotiations with the new mayor, writing \u201cwe welcome this new leadership and the opportunity to move our city toward a more just and equitable future.\u201d<\/p>\n Labor experts say mayors often have thorny relationships with public sector unions. But Mamdani\u2019s self-styled pro-worker image puts him in a difficult spot now that he\u2019s on the other side of the bargaining table.<\/p>\n \u201c\u200aThere’s really a striking difference in the approach to those two hats the mayor wears,\u201d said Joshua Freeman, a history professor at the CUNY School of Labor and Urban Studies.<\/p>\n Freeman said that approach is reflected in Mamdani\u2019s appointments of nationally recognized pro-labor voices for roles that deal with the private sector. He hired former acting U.S. Labor Secretary Julie Su as his deputy mayor for economic justice, and chose Tony Perlstein, a longtime leader with the United Auto Workers, to lead the Office of Worker Power. \u201cBut he just kept the old crowd in for the public sector,\u201d Freeman said.<\/p>\n As mayor, Mamdani faces new pressures that he did not face as a state assemblymember and advocate. The city is staring down a projected $6.4 billion deficit<\/a> for the next fiscal year. DC37\u2019s contract, which covers about 90,000 municipal workers, expires<\/a> this fall. And Mamdani needs funding to cover his signature campaign issues, like universal childcare, free buses and city-owned grocery stores.<\/p>\n \u201c\u200aMamdani is facing the same structural situation that other pro-labor mayors have faced in the past,\u201d Freeman said.<\/p>\n Mayor Fiorello La Guardia, for example, who\u2019s widely remembered as a champion of workers<\/a>, also had a sometimes fraught relationship with public employees.<\/p>\n La Guardia drew a sharp line between private and public sector unions, and did not believe<\/a> city workers should be allowed to strike.<\/p>\n When the city took over the private subway and train lines that became the MTA, La Guardia refused to recognize<\/a> the workers\u2019 unions and their contracts. \u201c\u200aIt was a huge fight that went on for many, many, many years, and it was only after La Guardia left office that the union finally re-established the right to collective bargaining,\u201d Freeman said.<\/p>\n