In his first term as New York City mayor, Eric Adams set out to establish himself as a friend of labor, quickly settling contracts with the city’s largest public sector unions, establishing a remote work pilot for some civil servants and securing Staten Island Ferry workers their first raise in more than a decade.
Under any other circumstances, the Democratic incumbent — himself a former public-sector worker — would cruise to reelection with the backing of the major unions that propelled him to victory in 2021. Instead, support for the mayor has cratered amid his corruption scandal, and the field remains wide open with little more than three months to go until the June 24 primary election.
Already, several prominent private and public-sector unions who backed him in 2021 have spurned him in favor of former Gov. Andrew Cuomo. And the mayor was the laughingstock of a campaign event he bailed on last month hosted by the city’s largest union, District Council 37, which endorsed him in 2021. Hundreds of rank and file members in attendance booed at the mere mention of his name as event moderator and DC 37 executive director Henry Garrido, a major Adams ally, giggled from his seat onstage. (Garrido did not respond to calls seeking comment.)
With less than 100 days left before early voting begins, who the kingmakers will endorse — in a field that also includes labor-friendly candidates like city Comptroller Brad Lander and state Sen. Jessica Ramos of Queens, who chairs the chamber’s labor committee — remains a question mark.
“We believe this race will come down to the last three weeks,” UFT president Michael Mulgrew told THE CITY, adding that the union plans on announcing its endorsement in late May.
United Federation of Teachers President Michael Mulgrew speaks outside City Hall, Oct. 2, 2024. Credit: Ben Fractenberg/THE CITY
The UFT joins political powerhouses DC 37, the Hotel and Gaming Trades Council, 1199 SEIU and 32BJ SEIU among the unions that have not publicly announced who they will back in the Democratic primary for mayor. Early voting starts June 14 for the June 24 ballot.
According to sources at several of those unions — from rank and file members to delegates to union leaders — there is no clear consensus on who to support in this primary cycle, an unusual situation in a reelection year with a Democratic incumbent.
Mayor Adams is deeply unpopular, and while the major unions are not immediately dismissing the disgraced former governor, the current leader in the polls and in fundraising, sources acknowledge the sexual harassment allegations against him and his controversial response to COVID are difficult to ignore.
Before officially launching her campaign last week, two of those unions — DC 37 and 32BJ SEIU — privately pushed Speaker Adrienne Adams to run, the Daily News reported, even though the Democratic field that at the time included the mayor, Ramos, former city Comptroller Scott Stringer, Lander, socialist Assemblymember Zohran Mamdani (Queens), State Sen. Zellnor Myrie (Brooklyn), and former Assemblymember Michael Blake (The Bronx).
Low Turnout, High Stakes
Not all of the as-yet-undecided unions endorsed Adams in 2021. Local 1199 SEIU and the UFT endorsed Maya Wiley and Stringer, respectively. But the lack of a clear consensus at this stage has complicated what has already been a primary race like no other.
Union endorsements are highly coveted by campaigns because of their ability to reach huge swaths of voters — both within their own membership and by providing an army of volunteers to push people to the polls — and because of their considerable financial resources.
Prominent unions relish their status as kingmakers, often welding that influence with early endorsements to establish the field of a campaign. In a ranked-choice election likely to have relatively low turnout, union support could make or break a candidate’s chances.
Comptroller Brad Lander, Assemblymember Zohran Mamdani and State Senator Jessica Ramos rally with UAW Local 259 members and auto technicians at Mercedes-Benz Manhattan, Dec. 2. 2024. Credit: Claudia Irizarry Aponte/THE CITY
But sources granted anonymity to speak with THE CITY said that the field remains uncertain, citing Cuomo and Speaker Adams’ late entries into the race. Betting on any one candidate, with three months to go before the primary, feels like too much of a gamble, they said.
The city’s two largest unions, DC 37 and the UFT, which jointly represent 60% of the city’s public workforce, said that they’ll announce their endorsements in mid-April and late-May, respectively — weeks before early voting begins. In 2021, DC 37 endorsed Adams in March, and the UFT endorsed Stringer in April.
Other unions and labor-backed groups have gone on the offensive. Earlier this month, United Auto Workers Region 9A launched a campaign calling on who not to vote for: “Don’t Rank Eric or Andrew for Mayor” or DREAM. A separate coalition of progressive groups, in what sources said was a coincidence, launched a similar campaign with the same acronym.
Last year, UAW Region 9A became the first union in the city to announce its endorsement in the mayoral election, urging members to rank Lander, Mamdani and Ramos on their ballots in no particular order.
Union members and leaders said immigration and affordability are major concerns this electoral cycle — and across the board, union members said they do not want a second Eric Adams term.
Early union support played a big role in Cuomo’s comeback campaign, which officially launched earlier this month. The New York City District Council of Carpenters co-hosted his March 1 campaign launch, and endorsements from the Teamsters local representing municipal security officers and public housing staff, Local 3 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, District 9 of the painters’ union and a union representing utility workers, quickly followed.
Though widely viewed as someone who can stand up to the Trump administration and tackle quality-of-life issues like crime, sources said, he has a mixed record on labor issues.
While he ultimately approved increasing the minimum wage in New York to $15 an hour, Cuomo was initially hostile to those efforts, calling it a “nonstarter.” And he was the architect of the profoundly unpopular pension reform for state workers known as Tier 6, which raised the retirement age to 63 and cut benefits for new hires.
Cuomo’s pension overhaul was a frequent attack line at the DC 37 mayoral candidates forum, with its mention eliciting boos from the hundreds of rank and file union members in attendance. (Cuomo, who had not yet launched his campaign, did not participate in the event.)
Former Governor Andrew holds speaks at a Teamsters hall in Manhattan after receiving an endorsement from the local representing NYCHA workers, March 6, 2025. Credit: Ben Fractenberg/THE CITY
In a phone call, Mulgrew acknowledged Cuomo’s role in enacting Tier 6 was “very controversial” for his members.
“Look, he’s got a campaign, he’s got a whole team, they’ve got to figure it out,” Mulgrew continued, adding that it would “say a lot if he doesn’t participate” in the union’s new pre-requisite for mayoral candidates to sit in a New York City classroom before vying for the union’s endorsement.
Another open question is whether the former governor — or any of the other candidates — will support remote work programs for civil servants piloted under a collective bargaining agreement secured by Adams in 2023 that was recently extended for another year.
But union leaders who’ve endorsed Cuomo said they’re willing to overlook his past controversies.
Gregory Floyd, president of the Teamsters local that backed Cuomo on March 6, said he was willing to give Cuomo a pass on widely documented allegations that he intentionally hid the number of deaths involving nursing home residents during the pandemic, saying the governor and his team did “the best they could with the information that they had.”
Of the sexual harassment claims against the former governor, Floyd said, referring to Donald Trump “this country elected someone who was convicted on 32 counts and had to pay, and still has to pay, money to someone they sexually harassed — and that’s proven, in court… So you’re gonna come tell me about somebody who had allegations versus someone who was proven and got elected — that doesn’t add up to me.”
But not all union members are immediately on board with the former governor.
“We’ve got PTSD from Eric Adams and his scandals. And I think with Cuomo, with the nursing home issues during COVID, the sexual harassment claims against him, we’re just tired of all that,” said a DC 37 union member and delegate granted anonymity to speak about internal union conversations. “We want a fresh start.”
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