Labor's clout in NYC mayoral race
1199SEIU, rallying here in 2017, is among the unions endorsing in the 2021 NYC mayor's race. Credit: Charles Eckert
Big-city mayoral races give municipal unions a unique forum in which to tout or fight the very candidates who would become top boss of their workplace. For tens of thousands of Long Islanders who work for New York City, but do not vote there, endorsements offer a collective bit of influence across the Queens border.
A bit, that is — but not too much. As a whole, the outsize attention to union endorsements gives very little hint of who will come out a winner.
One glaring example makes this point. Twenty years ago, the United Federation of Teachers backed losers three times — once in the primary, once in the runoff, and once in the general election — and then won a huge pay raise the following year from self-funded Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
These days no rational campaign strategist would refuse a big union’s potential for fundraising, phone-banking and speechmaking. And this year, with a dozen candidates on the primary ballot of the city’s dominant Democratic Party, turnout is far from predictable. So, the reasoning goes, any modest bloc has a chance to make a difference.
So far, City Comptroller Scott Stringer has the UFT in his corner. Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams won endorsement from the sprawling District Council 37, and from SEIU Local 32 BJ and the Uniformed Fire Officers Association. Maya Wiley, former counsel to term-limited incumbent Bill de Blasio, has the backing of 1199SEIU, the health care workers' local.
Labor organizations will not and cannot act as a monolith. As the fractious primary unfolds, antagonism with different unions also offers desired attention for a candidate. Entrepreneur Andrew Yang, who's been doing relatively well in polls, expressed frustration last month that "the UFT has been a significant reason why our schools have been slow to open." He also criticized the union for its political resistance to charter schools.
Given the current political climate, police unions with many suburban residents, led by the Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association, could end up outliers. A third of more than 35,000 uniformed members of the New York Police Department live in Nassau and Suffolk counties, as Newsday reported in February. While a PBA preference could influence the Republican primary between radio personality Curtis Sliwa and business owner Fernando Mateo, the GOP’s clout in the city has been negligible for years.
Leaders of police and education unions, of course, have landed on opposing sides of the national political divide, even as their members frequently come from the same families. "This reflects the fractured character of the city," said Mitchell Moss, Henry Hart Rice professor of urban policy & planning at New York University. He adds: "The UFT and the police unions have a similar dynamic. So many of the members live outside the five boroughs."
Underdog candidate Kathryn Garcia, who served as the city's sanitation commissioner until last September, picked up support from the labor group that represents 6,000 members of "New York's Strongest," who had been under her direct command. Her website touts Uniformed Sanitationmen's Association Teamsters Local 831 President Harry Nespoli vowing: "You simply won’t find a better Mayor than I know Kathryn Garcia will be."
Backing the former commissioner to become top boss at City Hall at least adds a distinctive twist to this year's endorsement scramble. How much it could matter to either side in the long run depends as always on the much, much bigger picture.
Dan Janison is a member of Newsday's editorial board.
Dan Janison is a member of the Newsday editorial board.
