Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani: Good afternoon, New York City. Thank you so much, Sara, for the warm welcome and the incredible work that you are leading. Thank you to Senator Sanders — Brooklyn's prodigal son — for bringing us together today and for setting the example of how to stand steadfast alongside working people for decades. And thank you to each and every one of you — the organizers, the activists, the hardworking men and women of labor — for how hard you work every single day. And for the vision of a better New York City that you have built and sustained day after day, week after week, year after year.
This city is many things. It is the global capital of business and technology. It is the home of the best pizza in the world, the best music in the world [and] the best theater in the world. But above all else, New York City is a union town. Now I want you to say it with me: New York City is a union town. There is no New York City without unions. Across the world, when people think of our city, they think of greatness. And when they think of that greatness, whether they know it or not, they are thinking of the power of organized labor.
When they think of towering engineering marvels like the Empire State Building, they are thinking of the union steelworkers and bricklayers that built it into the clouds. When they fly halfway across the world to see a Broadway show, they benefit from unionized flight attendants, baggage handlers and airport cleaners at JFK and LaGuardia. Union hospitality workers at our hotels, and union actors and union stagehands that make magic happen on that stage.
And when they think of a city where greatness is an everyday expectation, they too are thinking of the city workers who power this incredible place that we call home. The schoolteachers who teach our children, the New Yorkers who drive our buses and our subways, the ones who clean our streets and tend to our parks. Each and every one of those New Yorkers is in a union. And from the Met to the newsroom, the warehouse to the coffee shop, more and more New Yorkers are bargaining for their first contracts.
Now, this greatness does not just happen by accident, my friends. It comes when we work hard, when we organize and when we stand together. And it comes when we build a city that puts working people first. I am proud to stand before you as your mayor of New York City. I haven't been here at this exact venue since I was a candidate for this position. It's lovely to be home with each and every one of you who ensured that I could now stand before you as a leader of our city, but most importantly, as a mayor who stands alongside union workers.
Now we know that so much of the work that organized labor does is through negotiation. Better pay, better benefits, better hours. But there is one thing that is non-negotiable. New York City has been, is now, and will forever be a union town. Since I took office 102 days ago, we have taken that solidarity and sought to turn it into a practice. Bernie and I stood on the picket line alongside NYSNA nurses on strike, because those who look after us when we are at our lowest moments deserve more. They deserve to be safe on the job. They deserve pay raises and pensions that were protected. And above all else, they deserve dignity. NYSNA won that dignity, not because any politician gave it to them, not because management gave it out of the goodness of their heart, but because they stood together and because they fought for it.
As my friend, Assemblywoman Phara Souffrant Forrest would always remind me, “Closed mouths do not get fed.” During the campaign, Bernie and I stood on the picket line with striking Starbucks workers, because “No Contract, No Coffee” was not just a slogan, it was a demand that working people be treated with respect. That is why I created a Deputy Mayor for Economic Justice, whose job it is to make sure that we are using every lever of City government to put workers first. And that is why I put Julie Su, the former secretary of labor and a lifelong champion for workers and unions, in that job. Because whether you are organizing a museum or a bar, we have your backs.
And it won't just be us. I am so proud to be here today, as we launch Union Now, because when we talk about the importance of taking on the crisis of income inequality, we know that the most effective tool to do so is increasing union density. And I am so excited at the power and the potential that an organization singularly focused on exactly that will have across this country. Organizing drives and strikes can frankly be lonely work. So, Union Now is going to support workers and provide them with more resources. And my administration will stand right alongside them.
This moment demands nothing less. AI and robots are coming for human jobs. Worker protections are being eroded. There are companies that think that exploitation is a viable business model. They are wrong. I am looking out on a room full of New Yorkers who are spending their Sunday, their hard-earned time off, standing side by side with strangers they have never met, but care about all the same. That is solidarity. That is an unbreakable bond. Because we know that a people united will never be defeated.
So, I ask you to say it with me one more time: New York City is a union town. New York City is a union town. New York City is a union town. The work has only just begun, my friends. The work is something that we shall all do together. Thank you very much.
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