What Does Mayor-Elect Mamdani’s Victory Mean for NYC’s Outstanding Labor Struggles?
New York City Mayor-Elect Zohran Mamdani.
By Joe Maniscalco
Mayor-Elect Zohran Mamdani declared victory on Tuesday night promising working class New Yorkers a “bold vision of what we will achieve, rather than a list of excuses for what we are too timid to attempt.”
But what does that mean for all the ongoing labor struggles that have largely gone ignored over the last four years of outgoing Mayor Eric Adams’ scandal-ridden administration?
What does it mean for the municipal retirees still fighting for passage of Intro. 1096—long languishing legislation aimed at protecting their traditional Medicare benefits from increasing privatization and expansion of profit-driven Medicare Advantage health insurance plans?
What does it mean for home health aides who continue to be subjected to slavish round-the-clock work shifts at roughly half the pay? And what does it mean for the public housing tenants facing the demolition of their homes, EMS workers still searching for the pay parity Adams promised, and app-based drivers constantly under threat of immediate deactivation and the loss of their livelihoods?
Marianne Pizzitola, head of the New York City Organization of Public Service Retirees, issued a statement on behalf of her group following Mamdani’s crushing defeat of disgraced former Governor Andrew Cuomo on Nov. 4.
“We’ve seen you speak bravely against hate, discrimination and fight for inclusion. All we ask is that the same compassion be extended to the older New Yorkers who built and sustained the services and institutions you now fight to improve.”
In it she says too many of the retirees she represents fighting back against the Medicare Advantage push have felt “invisible” in conversations about the future of their city-backed healthcare—but that they now look forward to “talking face-to-face” with the new mayor-elect “and having a discussion on our legislation Intro. 1096.”
“While others were afforded opportunity, our voices were never invited in,” Pizzitola said in the statement. “Under the recent administrations, we watched decisions being made that directly impact our health, our financial stability, and even our ability to age with dignity, and we were left without a seat at the table. After a lifetime of service, that silence hurts.”
Pizzitola further goes on to say to the next mayor, “We know you care deeply about injustice. We’ve seen you speak bravely against hate, discrimination and fight for inclusion. All we ask is that the same compassion be extended to the older New Yorkers who built and sustained the services and institutions you now fight to improve.”
United Federation of Teachers [UFT] and Cross Union Retirees Organizing Committee [CROC] member Sarah Shapiro told Work-Bites that she is “beyond happy and relieved that Mamdani beat the billionaires and millionaires.”
“Retirees with minimal income will benefit from Mamdani's plans to freeze the rent on rent stabilized apartments and provide free buses and free childcare for everyone,” she said. “We all know that Mamdani is opposed to Medicare Advantage and will preserve the traditional Medicare we now have.”
Fellow CROC member Martha Cameron told Work-Bites Mamdani is relying on health care policy experts, workers in the field, and community members to renovate and expand health care in the city. She also said the path to single payer health insurance—through passage of the NY Health Act—will be easier now that Mamadani has been elected mayor.
“The detailed policy paper that his people put out truly aims to meet the needs of all New Yorkers, not just those of us, like NYC municipal workers who are privileged to have good health care coverage in our retirement,” she said. “Yes, we retirees need to keep fighting to keep our traditional Medicare coverage—and truly we need to pass the New York Health Act— but now our path will be so much easier.”
Mamdani has forcefully articulated his opposition to pushing New York City municipal retirees into a profit-driven Medicare Advantage health insurance plan they steadfastly reject—but stopped short of pledging support for Intro. 1096, telling Work-Bites last fall that he supports “the spirit of it right now, and as the next mayor it would not even be required given what my policies would be on the issue.”
Outgoing Mayor Eric Adams ultimately abandoned the Medicare Advantage push in June despite finally getting a favorable ruling in the New York State Court of Appeals after suffering a string of prior losses to the New York City Organization of Public Service Retirees challenging the implementation of Medicare Advantage in court.
Retired MTA Transit workers are is still in court trying to reverse the decision of their union—under the leadership of disgraced former TWU Local 100 president Richard Davis—to push them into a profit-driven Medicare Advantage health insurance plan notorious for delaying and denying necessary care.
They are planning their next move after receiving what TWU Local 100R President Lloyd Archer calls a “mixed decision” from Administrative Judge Shahabuddeen A. Ally on Oct. 29.
Archer says that his group was never going to back Cuomo’s mayoral bid this year because he was the guy that implemented Tier 6 on Transit workers—reducing pension benefits while raising the retirement age—and blocking hazard pay despite the heavy losses Transit workers sustained during Covid. At the same time, Archer also said retired Transit workers intend to hold Mamdani to his pro-worker and anti-Medicare Advantage rhetoric.
“I hope it’s true because we reached out to him, we’ve sent letters to him asking him his position on [TWU Local 100’s Medicare Advantage push]—but nobody got back to us,” Archer told Work-Bites.
Mamdani’s campaign, according to Pizzitola, has been equally unresponsive to the New York City Organizaiton of Public Service Retirees and their ongoing push to codify Intro. 1096.
“We’ll put pressure on him,” Archer added. “This is just me speaking, I’m not speaking for TWU Local 100R, but I do not trust politicians because they’ll say anything to get elected and once they’re there the scenario changes.”
Mamdani’s campaign benefitted from the support of District Council 37, the largest public sector union in the city, despite the mayor-elect’s stated opposition to Medicare Advantage and DC 37 Executive Director Henry Garrido’s infamous vow to pull support from any elected officials sympathetic to retirees pushing Intro. 1096.
A spokesperson for Council Member Chris Marte, sponsor of both Intro. 1096 and the “No More 24” bill aimed at ending mandatory round-the-clock shifts for home health care workers—said that he looks forward to working with the new Mamdani administration to “advance our legislative priorities.”
“Transit retirees kept this city running through blackouts, blizzards, 9/11, and the pandemic. Yet today, we feel abandoned—not only by the MTA, but by the union that was meant to protect us in our most vulnerable years.”
TWU Local 100R has also penned a message to the new mayor-elect calling on Mamdani to be an ally in their ongoing fight against Medicare Advantage.
“Your campaign and acceptance speech electrified us,” the TWU Local 100R letter states. “We saw in you a fierce advocate for the people—all people—and we believe you understand what it means to fight for those who are unseen and unheard. Transit retirees kept this city running through blackouts, blizzards, 9/11, and the pandemic. Yet today, we feel abandoned—not only by the MTA, but by the union that was meant to protect us in our most vulnerable years.”
A spokesperson for the Ain’t I a Woman coalition fighting on behalf of home care workers, meanwhile, told Work-Bites, that “Zohran’s win shows that NYC rejects sweatshops and that whomever has the support of home care workers will win. And this is just the beginning. We want to win more to protect our health with this new administration.”
Bhairavi Desai, executive director of the New York Taxi Workers Alliance [NYTWA] representing some 28,000 yellow cab, Uber, and Lyft drivers, said that her organization is thrilled that New York City voters “delivered a mandate to a mayor with a working class agenda.”
More than 2 million New Yorkers—a record number of residents—voted in this year’s mayoral election—and more than 50% of them voted for New York Assembly Member and Democratic Socialist Zohran Mamdani to succeed Eric Adams.
“In 2021, New York City taxi drivers struggled alongside Zohran Mamdani outside on the open streets of our city for 45 days—including 15 days of hunger strike—in our fight for debt relief,” Desai said in a statement this week. “NYTWA members witnessed this humble state assembly member insist on being the last in line behind them to be checked by physicians during the hunger strike, huddle in circles with them during campaign updates and strategy sessions, and introduce them by name to other elected officials. So of course drivers feel that Mamdani is one of their own. They saw themselves reflected in a campaign focused on immigrants and workers, and they saw Mamdani carrying the working class with him in every step he’s taken toward power.”
In Chelsea, where the New York City Housing Authority [NYCHA] is actively working to push elderly tenants out of their apartments on West 27th Drive as part of the wider campaign to demolish the Fulton and Elliott-Chelsea Public Houses and make way for a spawning new complex of mostly market rate luxury housing—tenants presently staring down that wrecking ball are holding out hope that Mayor-Elect Mamdani will offer them something other than the “public-private partnership” schemes advanced by the Eric Adams administration.
“When Mamdani mentioned NYCHA in his speech, I jumped up and down. His whole speech was simply so powerful and inspiring.”
Mamdani told a packed roomful of supporters on Tuesday night that, “This new age will be one of relentless improvement. We will hire thousands more teachers. We will cut waste from a bloated bureaucracy. We will work tirelessly to make lights shine again in the hallways of NYCHA developments where they have long flickered.”
“I am so hopeful,” Chelsea tenant advocate Lizette Colón told Work-Bites this week. “I was there last night at his Brooklyn celebration. When Mamdani mentioned NYCHA in his speech, I jumped up and down. His whole speech was simply so powerful and inspiring.”
Eric Adams is also leaving office failing to deliver on the pay parity he promised EMS workers who can still only earn as little as $59,000 after five years on the job. Will the Mamdani administration finally deliver for New York City’s street doctors as they continue to tread water and emergency response times across the city rise?
Work-Bites reached out to Oren Barzilay, head of Local 2507, Uniformed EMT's, Paramedics & Fire Inspectors to find out his thoughts, and we hope to have more on that soon.
In addition to keeping the lights on in NYCHA developments, the new mayor-elect also reiterated his pledge on Tuesday night to freeze rents, make buses fast and free, and deliver universal childcare.
Advocates pushing to repeal the New York State Stock Transfer Tax Rebate, however, argue that the only realistic way new Mayor-Elect Mamdani will be able to make good on those aspirations is to back their campaign.
The New York State Stock Transfer Tax—a minuscule levy on stock trades in effect from 1905 to 1981—could deliver tens of billions of dollars every year to fund Mamdani’s proposals and more, advocates insist.
“I can’t see any other source that’s more realistic, and it’s long past due,” Ray Rogers, celebrated labor organizer and head of the Greed vs. Need Campaign, told Work-Bites. “It was effective in the past and can be again. And Mamdani has quite a mandate to help get it done.”
Assembly Member Phil Steck has sponsored legislation, mirrored in the upper chamber by another bill from State Senator James Sanders, Jr., that proposes the State of New York finally quit rebating the Stock Transfer Tax back to Wall Street—conservatively estimated to generate at least $13 billion annually and probably much more as a result.
But the new mayor-elect isn’t one of the co-sponsors and is instead proposing new taxes on corporations and individuals earning over $1 million a year to fund his working class agenda.
Work-Bites made several unsuccessful attempts to reach the Mamdani campaign for comment on this story and will continue pursuing those questions.