NEW YORK CITY Mayor Zohran Mamdani established the Office of Worker Power on Labor Day through a new executive order, creating the first municipal agency of its kind to directly support private-sector unionization.
The office will connect workers with union organizers, provide educational resources on labor rights, and create a channel for reporting labor law violations. Tony Perlstein, who previously directed the United Auto Workers' organizing department and worked as a longshoreman, will lead the office.
Perlstein reports to Julie Su, the deputy mayor for economic justice and former acting labor secretary under President Joe Biden. Su said the office addresses "the vast chasm between the city's wealthiest and its struggling middle class."
"When workers organize, when they can build lasting, durable power that lets them transform their work experience and their lives, everything changes," Su said. "With the disappearance of good middle-class careers and the replacement with precarious part-time jobs in the gig economy, now is the time for the city government to take a stand on the side of workers."
The office will target construction workers, domestic workers and delivery drivers in the private sector, avoiding potential legal conflicts with public-employee organizing. Mamdani's administration has already secured millions in back pay for gig and fast-food workers through settlements in his first six months.
Last month, the city Department of Consumer and Worker Protection partnered with the Manhattan District Attorney's office to streamline investigations into wage theft and labor crimes.
The Emergency Workplace Organizing Committee, formed in 2020 as a joint project of the Democratic Socialists of America and the United Electrical Workers, inspired the new office. Born from Sen. Bernie Sanders' second presidential campaign, EWOC connects worker inquiries with volunteers—often labor organizers—who share legal resources, organizing tools and host workshops teaching workers how to form unions.
