Mayor Zohran Mamdani appointed Liz Vladeck, the Department of Education\u2019s top lawyer, to lead his Office of Labor Relations \u2014 a crucial role tasked with representing the city in collective bargaining with unions representing hundreds of thousands of teachers, law enforcement, first responders and other civil servants.<\/p>\n
Vladeck will succeed Commissioner Renee Campion, who this summer made the surprise announcement<\/a> of her retirement effective Dec. 1, after nearly a quarter century at the agency. She will stay on as commissioner until that date, a City Hall source said.<\/p>\n Vladeck will have a lengthy to-do list. The Mamdani administration is in the middle of negotiating funding for a health program that pays for civil servants\u2019 prescription drugs, chemotherapy and other benefits. Money for that program, known as PICA<\/a>, was tied up in a cash pot that was declared insolvent<\/a> days before Mamdani\u2019s inauguration.<\/p>\n Those talks are the main obstacle to beginning negotiations on a new contract covering members of District Council 37, the city\u2019s largest public sector union with approximately 100,000 members, sources have told The City Reporter. The current contract expires next month.<\/p>\n \u201cPublic servants keep our city running and they deserve respect, support, and a City government that takes its responsibilities to them seriously. I look forward to looking closely with Liz and our city\u2019s unions to deliver real results for New Yorkers across the five boroughs,\u201d Mamdani said in a statement. \u201cI also want to thank Renee Campion for her decades of service to our city and wish her all the best in her retirement.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Vladeck is a veteran of city government, though she has never worked at the Office of Labor Relations. Prior to her appointment as the DOE\u2019s general counsel, she was a senior labor policy advisor to Mayor Bill de Blasio and crafted policy at his worker and consumer protection agency, according to her LinkedIn profile.<\/p>\n