Mamdani creates new DSA-inspired office to help NYC workers unionize: Concerning for small business
Happy Labor Day from Hizzoner.Mayor Zohran Mamdani on Monday announced a new taxpayer-funded office — with an undisclosed price tag — that will help New York City workers unionize.The Mayor’s Office of Worker Power, established through an executive order, will help employees in the private sector “get informed, connected and organized” about forming unions at their workplaces, City Hall said in a press release.The new office “will make sure workers have a seat at the table before exploitation becomes a crisis and violations become routine,” Mamdani said in a statement.“We’re connecting workers to their rights, to each other and to the organizations ready to stand with them.”The office will hold hearings on “worker issues” and develop policy proposals based on testimony from employees.
It will also give out information about workers’ rights and help connect employees interested in starting unions with organizations that can help them, City Hall said.Tony Perlstein, a former dockworker, union organizer and deputy director of communications for the national lefty organizing group Center for Popular Democracy, will run the office.It’s not clear if anyone else will be hired to staff the office, or how much its budget will be.Perlstein will report to Mamdani’s Deputy Mayor for Economic Justice Julie Su, previously a cabinet official under President Joe Biden.“This office allows us to get ahead of exploitation instead of simply responding to it.
By building relationships with workers, unions and worker centers, we can understand what is happening on the ground and act before problems become crises,” Su said in a statement.The office is inspired by the Emergency Workplace Organizing Committee, a joint effort of the Democratic Socialists of America and United Electrical Workers, according to The City Reporter, which first reported on the announcement.“It’s remarkable that the Mamdani administration conflates being forced to pay a uni...