Mamdani launches nation’s first city office dedicated to worker organizing

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani launched the Mayor’s Office of Worker Power on September 7, according to a City Hall announcement, describing it as the first city agency in the country dedicated to supporting labor organizing.

Mamdani said “every day, working New Yorkers show up, do their jobs, and keep this city running. Too often, they have no say in the conditions they work under.”

The office will convene workers, union leaders and worker centers, hold public hearings on workplace issues, refer workers to support organizations, research the conditions they describe, and use that research to inform city policy, according to the announcement. It is also meant to connect workers with information about their legal rights at libraries, IDNYC offices, workforce centers, schools and community events, reaching independent gig and platform workers alongside traditional employees.

Deputy Mayor for Economic Justice Julie Su, a former acting US labor secretary, will coordinate the office’s work across city agencies. Su said “by building relationships with workers, unions and worker centers, we can understand what is happening on the ground and act before problems become crises.”

Mamdani named Tony Perlstein, a former longshore worker who most recently directed organizing for the United Auto Workers, as the office’s first executive director. Perlstein said “I’ve been part of many campaigns, some successful, some not. For me this is not just about the material gains that workers win, but it’s also the transformative process that workers go through,” according to The American Prospect.

Su said “history has proven that worker power is the solution when an economy becomes too skewed. When workers can organize, everything changes.” Asked about potential conflict with federal labor policy under the Trump administration, Su said “for this mayor, he’s been very clear that we are going to do the right thing regardless of what the federal government does.”

The staff size and budget for the new office have not yet been determined, The American Prospect reported.

Private-sector union density in New York City has fallen from about 25% in the 1980s to roughly 12.5% today, according to figures from the City University of New York’s School of Labor and Urban Studies cited by the outlet.

City Hall’s announcement cited figures on the conditions the office is meant to address. The average chief executive at the 100 largest low-wage corporations earns 614 times more than that company’s median worker, according to the announcement. Roughly 1.4 million New Yorkers work outdoors, exposing them to heat and weather risks.

The announcement also pointed to an earlier city crackdown on tip theft affecting the roughly 70,000 app-based delivery workers in New York, which it said has generated about $104 million in additional tips since January, or roughly $2,287 more per worker annually.

Nationally, 10% of wage and salary workers belonged to a union in 2025, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, essentially unchanged from 9.9% in 2024. Public-sector workers nationwide were unionized at a rate of 32.9%, compared with 5.9% in the private sector.