Zohran Mamdani Just Created an Office of Worker Power
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani has signed an executive order creating the country’s first city agency dedicated explicitly to helping workers organize. He spoke with Jacobin about how the new office will advance his affordability agenda.
Cities have labor departments that enforce the law. New York’s new Mayor’s Office of Worker Power aims to do something else: help workers organize themselves. (Michael Nigro / Pacific Press / LightRocket via Getty Images)
On Thursday, Mayor Zohran Mamdani signed an executive order creating the Mayor’s Office of Worker Power (MOWP), the nation’s first municipal agency built to help workers organize.
Tony Perlstein will run the MOWP, reporting to Deputy Mayor for Economic Justice Julie Su. A former longshoreman and union organizer born and raised in New York, Perlstein served as an organizing director for the United Auto Workers, where he helped lead a national campaign to lift pay and protect jobs from automation.
As part of its mandate, the MOWP will regularly bring union leaders and rank-and-file members together to discuss worker issues and organizing drives. It also aims to reach unorganized workers, like immigrants and gig drivers, and connect them to worker centers and other resources. The office plans to hold public hearings, teach workers what protections they already have, and steer them toward organizations that can help.
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