{"id":98746,"date":"2026-01-13T15:35:19","date_gmt":"2026-01-13T15:35:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/98746\/"},"modified":"2026-01-13T15:35:19","modified_gmt":"2026-01-13T15:35:19","slug":"how-mamdani-can-help-workers-using-his-office","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/98746\/","title":{"rendered":"How Mamdani can help workers using his office"},"content":{"rendered":"

As nearly 15,000 NYC nurses went on strike<\/a> yesterday, Mayor Mamdani showed up to demonstrate support. It\u2019s a powerful gesture when elected leaders express public solidarity with workers\u2019 demands, in this case<\/a>, safe staffing for patients, as well as health care benefits and workplace violence protection for nurses.\u00a0<\/p>\n

What else can Mamdani do to improve the lives of workers? Albany power brokers sharply constrain NYC mayors. Closer to home, the City Council \u2014 not the mayor \u2014 passes new laws.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But passing legislation is only one way to make change. Even without new laws, there\u2019s leverage to help workers. Here\u2019s how.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Educate, organize, and continue building a movement<\/p>\n

Most people know little<\/a> about workplace rights<\/a>. Education isn\u2019t a cure-all, but uninformed workers are more exploitable. The city can post workers\u2019 rights information<\/a> \u2014 including how to form and join a union<\/a> \u2014 on the city\u2019s website, in public spaces, and on public transit. The city can pilot inclusion of workers\u2019 rights education in public high schools<\/a>. (California<\/a> and New Jersey<\/a> recently required this.) Public education efforts can include safety issues like workplace heat<\/a>, an underestimated hazard that harms thousands annually.<\/p>\n

The mayor\u2019s team can host meetups for workers interested in learning more about unions, alongside unions wishing to recruit members and organize new workplaces. Government often plays a convening role: city and state agencies routinely hold job fairs connecting employers and job seekers. Why shouldn\u2019t the city also play matchmaker for workers and unions?<\/p>\n

Worker issues are largely absent from TV and popular culture<\/a>. Mamdani is a social media phenomenon and powerful motivator for civic engagement. Being mayor offers countless opportunities to shine a light on workers and support unions.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Mamdani could create \u201cMayors for Workers\u2019 Rights\u201d for like-minded mayors nationwide, as prior mayors did<\/a> on immigrant rights<\/a>. Cities could cross-pollinate innovations, coordinate on policy, or bring joint enforcement cases against national corporations. Collective action helps workers achieve greater power; the same is true of governments<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The mayor could create a mayoral advisory board on worker justice. Corporations and business leaders enjoy ready access to government. This is rarely true for working people. An official advisory board on worker justice could regularly meet with the mayor\u2019s team, facilitating ongoing partnership and inclusion of worker voice.<\/p>\n

Leverage the city\u2019s power<\/p>\n

The mayor can ensure city contractors create good jobs. The city spends mountains of money buying goods and services. Those contracts should create high quality jobs<\/a>, and definitely shouldn\u2019t go to bottom-feeders with repeat or unresolved violations<\/a>. The mayor\u2019s team should infuse job quality considerations throughout the contracting process, including working extensively with procurement officials. This can be done nimbly, and need not slow a sometimes-sclerotic process.<\/p>\n

When businesses want something from the city, require fair treatment of workers. Boston contractors seeking a building permit must first<\/a> explain in an affidavit how they\u2019ll keep workers safe. Austin<\/a> expedites permitting for builders providing heightened workplace protections. San Diego<\/a> and Santa Clara<\/a> counties suspend restaurant permits if owners don\u2019t pay unsatisfied wage theft judgments. NYC could use similar carrots and sticks.<\/p>\n

Worker issues should be injected throughout city government. Agencies could systematically incorporate labor concerns in their operations. For example, the Department of Housing Preservation and Development should ensure compliance with workplace laws as new housing is developed.<\/p>\n

Enforce workers\u2019 rights<\/p>\n

Enforcement should be beefed up with more funding, specifically, an increased budget for the Department of Consumer and Worker Protection and Commission on Human Rights.\u00a0<\/p>\n

NYC can also expand its enforcement reach by asking the state AG to \u201ccross-designate\u201d city attorneys as special assistant attorneys general to fight wage theft; creating a worker protection unit in the Corporation Counsel\u2019s office (as San Francisco\u2019s city attorney has done<\/a>); or entering contingency fee contracts with law firms (as the D.C. AG\u2019s office<\/a> and New Jersey enforcers<\/a> have done). The mayor\u2019s team can also refer cases to NYC\u2019s district attorneys<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

City agencies should use consumer laws to protect workplace rights. Workers are consumers and consumers are workers. Consumer violations are implicated<\/a>, for example, when a delivery app keeps tips that consumers intended for workers<\/a>, or when companies that impose debt on employees<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Cities and counties nationwide are increasingly championing workers\u2019 rights<\/a>, which hasn\u2019t historically been a municipal function. Our new mayor should seek new pro-worker laws, but he needn\u2019t wait for Albany or the City Council. Using power already at his fingertips, Mamdani can lead nationally on workers\u2019 rights.<\/p>\n

Gerstein is director of the NYU Wagner Labor Initiative<\/a> at the NYU Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As nearly 15,000 NYC nurses went on strike yesterday, Mayor Mamdani showed up to demonstrate support. It\u2019s a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":98747,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[9,11,10,299],"class_list":["post-98746","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-opinion"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98746","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=98746"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98746\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/98747"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=98746"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=98746"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=98746"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}