Exclusive | Cuomos election loss reveals onetime kingmaker NYC unions now toothless paper tigers

The biggest loser in the Democratic primary race for mayor besides Andrew Cuomo is New York’s weakened labor movement.Cuomo’s Big Labor muscles were exposed as nothing but “paper tigers” without bite, according to longtime political strategists and even people active in the union movement.“Clearly, the support of some of the largest NYC unions for Cuomo, which he very prominently showcased in the debates and elsewhere, did not do much for the former governor (nor for the unions themselves),” Johsua Freeman, a labor historian and professor at the CUNY Graduate Center, wrote to The Post.“Also, the membership in some unions is less mobilized and engaged in political action than in earlier years.“In some respects, the impressive DSA field operation has moved into the void,” Freeman said, referring to the Democratic Socialists of America party that includes primary-race winner Zohran Mamdani.Mamdani and his army of thousands of passionate volunteers — including many DSA members — outworked the network of unions that Cuomo relied upon to get out the vote.It turned out Mamdani didn’t need the unions, and it’s clear from the results that at least some rank-and-file union members defied their leadership and voted for the two-term Queens state assemblyman — just as many union households voted for Republican President Trump last year.The city’s 8-1 matching funds for small donations also make candidates less reliant on union cash, Freeman noted, while others pointed to large funding from “independent” Super PACs backing candidates as making labor unions less relevant.“The unions were paper tigers,” a veteran labor associate said.

“Their get-out-the-vote operations are diminished.They’ve been living off past success.”Cuomo was endorsed by the heart of Big Labor — Service Employees International Union Local 1199 representing health care workers, Local 32 BJ for building workers, the Hotel Trades and Gaming Council, the firefight...