Can Zohran Make NYC a Union Town Again?

Can Zohran Mamdani make New York City a union town again?

Organized labor here is stronger than in the rest of the country. But this isn’t saying much. The unionization rate of the city’s private sector is only 13.5%, almost half of what it was in the 1980s. And while 61.1% of public sector workers remain unionized, only 1 in 5 New York City workers belongs to a union—a significant drop from the 1 in 3 unionization rate of the 1970s.

Turning around labor’s decline is crucial for achieving Mamdani’s overarching goal of an affordable New York. In a state with the highest income inequality in the nation, millions of workers urgently need the wage boost and job protections that only a union can provide. Moreover, it will take a huge increase in grassroots power to force Albany and Governor Kathy Hochul to fund Mamdani’s core policy planks for childcare, transport, and housing. Union resurgence could both feed into and feed off of a broader bottom-up movement for an affordable New York.

Moving in this direction will not be easy. Trump has kneecapped the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), making it even harder than before for workers to act upon their federally guaranteed right to unionize. And most unions remain myopically focused on servicing their shrinking membership base. Despite a post-pandemic uptick in grassroots workplace organizing, unprecedented public support for unions, and the urgency of combating authoritarian Trumpism, most unions are still investing almost nothing into growth.

The good news is that City Hall has a surprisingly high number of political and legal tools at its disposal, even though labor law in the US is for the most part (but not exclusively) a federal purview. As mayor, Mamdani could leverage his platform as well as public policies to help turn New York back into a bastion of worker power—an affordable city with an organized working class strong enough to overcome the billionaires, Trump, and the Democratic establishment. What follows is an overview of some of the most powerful steps that a Mamdani administration could take to boost unionization in New York City.

Zohran’s Bully Pulpit

By far the most impactful thing Mamdani could do to reverse labor’s decline requires no legislation, and it would cost the city virtually nothing. He just has to use his massive platform to encourage New Yorkers to unionize and to galvanize public support ...