New York City labor leaders and rank and file workers gather on the steps of the James A. Farley building Thursday. Photos/Steve Wishnia
By Steve Wishnia
Hundreds of workers from a score of unions packed the two-block-wide steps of New York City’s main post office Oct. 15 for a rally launching a labor campaign to protect elections from tampering by the Trump administration.
A five-piece drums-and-horns combo from American Federation of Musicians Local 802 pumped out a New Orleans-style parade beat while Laborers Union organizer Anthony Williamson led chants of “Union in the house” and “This is what democracy looks like.”
“Look at this crowd,” Laborers International Union Vice-President Mike Hellstrom declared. “Private sector, public sector, different trades, standing together shoulder to shoulder with one clear message—the labor movement will defend democracy.”
If anybody attempts to steal the election, he added, the labor movement will mobilize communities, protest peacefully, and document intimidation of voters.
“We need to make sure that every ballot is counted, that people can exercise their right to vote without interference,” New York City Central Labor Council President Brendan Griffith told the crowd. “That should not be controversial.”
The principle that “we pick our leaders,” said Communications Workers of America Local 1180 secretary-treasurer Robin Blair-Batte, is now “under pressure.”
“We fought for the Voting Rights Act,” she reminded.
32BJ SEIU President Manny Pastreich also hailed the coalition of “janitors with construction workers, security officers with nurses.”
New York City labor unions are vowing to mobilize if anybody attempts to steal the upcoming midterm elections.
Griffith told Work-Bites the coalition began with various unions expressing concerns and built momentum from there. “Democracy affects all workers,” he said. The crowd included members of at least 20 unions, with large contingents from the Laborers, 32BJ, and 1199SEIU, along with electrical workers, painters, nurses, City University faculty, retail workers, theatrical and stage workers, hotel workers, the public-sector union DC37, and more.
Two specific attempts by the Trump administration to limit the right to vote have so far failed. The SAVE Act, which would require people to register to vote in person—banning registration by mail, at motor-vehicle bureaus, or online—and document their citizenship with a passport or birth certificate (plus a marriage license, for women who changed their names), narrowly passed the House in April 2025, but a threatened filibuster blocked it in the Senate.
On March 31, Trump issued an executive order to prohibit mail-in voting except by people on a list of eligible voters that states submitted to the Postal Service at least 60 days in advance, using only an officially designed envelope with specific markings. The Postal Service issued a rule on August 26 that it would not accept mail ballots from states that did not provide such lists, but a federal judge in Massachusetts issued an injunction against it. On Sept. 14, the Supreme Court refused to lift that injunction.
“We beat him back,” American Postal Workers Union President Jonathan Smith told Work-Bites after the rally. “Our oath is to deliver America’s mail, not to decide who can vote.”
The APWU filed an amicus brief in that case arguing that the rule infringed on both the states’ constitutional power to regulate elections and the Postal Service’s constitutional obligation to deliver the mail.
American Postal Workers Union President Jonathan Smith, APWU Local 10 President Joseph Martir, and New York Central Labor Council President Brendan Griffith show a united front on the main post office’s steps this week.
Voting by mail is “not a convenience,” APWU Local 10 President Joseph Martir told the rally. It’s a necessity for people in the military, students, and a large share of the elderly.
The union plans to have election monitors “in every station” in the last two weeks before the election,” Smith said, to “make sure every ballot gets out.” Ninety-nine percent of mail ballots reach their destination within seven days, and 97% do within three days, he added.
But what the country is up against is a president who repeatedly insists that he won the 2020 election, has made that delusional belief a loyalty test for his government and party, sent 1,500 goons into the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 to disrupt Joe Biden’s certification as President-elect, and pardoned them all immediately upon taking office again on January 20, 2025.
He controls the machinery of federal law enforcement. What would happen if, for example, armed ICE agents, not exactly known for their respect for people with Spanish accents who say they’re U.S. citizens, showed up outside polling places in swing-district towns with significant Latino populations?
32BJ is sending volunteer pollwatchers into swing Congressional districts in the Hudson Valley and on Long Island. “We don’t know if Trump and his supporters might try to intimidate people, but a crime or disturbance is less likely to happen if people are watching,” says Justin Lashley-Maloney, a night-shift doorman and “proud 32BJ member” for 13 years.
Griffith said the unions are doing pollwatching, helping people understand their rights, and working for a large turnout. He said he hoped “that these races are not close and that the results are clear.”
If ICE interferes with the election, “the labor movement’s going to respond,” he added.
“To the Trump administration and his criminal network: Democracy belongs to all of us. Democracy’s on the line, am I right?” 1199SEIU executive vice president Mike Ashby told the crowd. “This fight is bigger than immigration. This fight is bigger than unions.”