Union Kingmakers Stay on Sidelines in Tumultuous Mayor's Race

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.





https://www.thecity.nyc/2025/03/19/labor-unions-mayor-election-eric-adams-cuomo/