Posts tagged Zohran Mamdani
New York City Unions Keep Winning Six-Figure Salaries
May 21, 2026 // Business owners say the wage increases will raise prices for consumers, with higher hotel bills and healthcare costs. In its negotiations, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority argued that the wage increases that Long Island Rail Road unions were asking for would lead to higher fares or increased borrowing. Labor economists and union supporters said union victories in New York City could be hard to replicate elsewhere, but across the country unions have been flexing a bit more muscle in recent years. And other workers, struggling to keep up with rising costs, could take notice.
N.Y.C. Hotel Housekeepers Will Earn Over $100,000 Under New Contract
May 19, 2026 // “They’re going to try to offset that by raising rates,” he said. But how successful they would be is unclear, given that New York City already has the highest average room rates of any big city in the United States, at about $335 a night, Mr. Pequeno said. In the past year, New York hotels have also had the nation’s highest occupancy rate, at about 84 percent, he said. The agreement between the hotel workers and the industry comes about six weeks before the expiration of the current 14-year contract. For more than a year, union officials had been preparing for a strike in early July, just before the celebration of the 250th birthday of the United States and the final of FIFA’s World Cup tournament at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey.
New Yorkers bracing for commuter chaos as LIRR workers remain on strike
May 17, 2026 // MTA Chairman Janno Lieber told reporters Sunday that the MTA refuses to make a deal that forces riders and taxpayers to fund wage increases for workers who, he contended, are already the highest-paid railroad employees in the nation. Nearly 300,000 daily commuters are affected by the strike, according to the MTA.
Dem congressional candidate arrested at May Day protest that blocked Wall Street
May 4, 2026 // At least five people — including a Queens congressional candidate — were arrested Friday as part of a May Day protest outside the New York Stock Exchange. Democrat Chuck Park was cuffed while blocking the entrances to Wall Street, his team confirmed.
Union Now Is America’s New Strike Fund
April 20, 2026 // The American labor movement will soon have something it’s never had before: a centralized strike fund. Union Now, the new nonprofit and brainchild of Association of Flight Attendants-CWA International President Sara Nelson, began officially fundraising at a kickoff rally on Sunday, April 12th, in Manhattan. National leaders of the Democratic left were there in support; both Bernie Sanders and Zohran Mamdani made rousing speeches, which suggests that the supporters Union Now hopes to enlist will go beyond those who are already union activists.
‘Power in the hands of people’: union leaders push to revive ailing US labor movement
April 15, 2026 // Leaders of some of the largest unions in the US have unveiled a drive to jumpstart the country’s ailing labor movement and combat growing wealth inequality under Donald Trump. To make it easier for workers to join a union, and strengthen the hand of new unions negotiating with powerful businesses, a string of prominent organizers joined together to launch Union Now, a non-profit designed to increase labor union density.
Commentary: Even socialist NYC mayor Mamdani can’t satisfy the teachers union
April 13, 2026 // Mulgrew has already threatened to try to kill the entire state budget unless it includes revisions to the Tier VI pension rules enacted in 2012, demanding a rollback that would allow teachers to retire earlier without massive penalties. He declared, “If we don’t have the significant fixes in Tier VI, then vote the budget down.” The changes would cost local governments, including New York City, hundreds of millions of dollars a year in higher pension contributions.
NYC apartment buildings could get stinky and gross if the workers that serve them go on strike, union reps warn
April 9, 2026 // Over a million New Yorkers could soon see crucial services in their apartment buildings disappear as tens of thousands of unionized doorpersons, porters, superintendents, handypersons and resident managers prepare to walk off the job later this month if their demands aren’t met. Luis Ayala, a union strike captain and overnight porter who has been in the building service industry for around five years, said the labor contract the real estate industry was offering stinks — and the stench of an odious labor dispute will be one that apartment dwellers will experience if a strike happens. “After a few days, the building is going to stink;
NYC faces possible strike by 34,000 doormen, building workers
March 28, 2026 // Property owners are alerting occupants of 3,500 co-ops, condos and apartment buildings across the five boroughs that services will decrease if a work suspension begins on April 21. That’s the day after the four-year-old contract expires for nearly 34,000 doormen, porters and maintenance workers. If there’s a strike, residents will need to wear badges to enter buildings, non-emergency renovation work will stop and moving in or out of the buildings will halt,
After Nearly Three Months, NYC Starbucks Workers Quietly End Strike
February 9, 2026 // Starbucks workers at 10 unionized New York City stores quietly returned to work on Thursday, ending their nearly three-month strike after failing to force management back to the bargaining table for a first contract. Workers in more than 85 cities nationwide have walked off the job since Nov. 13 in what the union called a “Red Cup Rebellion,” to protest the company’s alleged refusal to finalize a collective bargaining agreement with their union, Starbucks Workers United.