Mamdani makes his case to 1199ers in NYC to win their votes on November 4.
This time last year, few people outside of his Queens district had ever heard of New York State Assembly member Zohran Mam-dani. Now, with his New York City mayoral contest just weeks away, Mamdani is being recognized all across the globe his candidacy is being seen by many as a beacon of hope that another world is possible.
Running without billionaire backing and instead relying on an army of more than 75,000 volun-teers to beef up his field operation, Mamdani’s mayoral bid is focused squarely on lowering the cost of living for working people.
“I’m running to make the most expensive city in the US af-fordable,” said Mamdani, speaking to 1,500 Union delegates attending the 1199SEIU Listening Tour’s Downstate event in Manhattan on October 1.
“What makes this city possible for so many is the work of organized labor. There is no greater tool in taking on income inequality than union density,” he added, recognizing how closely his values aligned with 1199’s.
Talking about the bill passed in Washington DC, which is set to re-move $8 billion from the NY budget alone and make health insurance impossible to afford for millions of New Yorkers, he added: “[The Republicans] have enough money for tax breaks for the private jets, but they don’t have enough money for a sick child facing chemotherapy.”
Anayansi Clark, an 1199 Home Care member from Staten Island said she planned to vote for Mam-dani because:
“He will be a great mayor to fix our housing crisis. I live in Section 8 housing and my rent just increased by $200 a month, while the conditions are degrading. His plan to freeze the rent and improve affordable housing is exactly what we need.”Acknowledging the enor-mous power that 1199 members wield in NYC electoral politics, Mamdani also hosted a question and answer session with members at St Barnabas Hospital in the Bronx on September 24.
Elva King, an 1199 Delegate and CNA at the hospital for 25 years said, “We are a safety net hospital, which means we care for the most vulnerable. No one is ever turned away and 80 percent of our funding comes from Medicaid. Any cuts
to Medicaid will not only hurt our patients, but deeply hurt our staff. Many of us come from the same community as those we take care of. We have to ensure that health care remains a right and not a privilege.”
Mandami agreed, “These cuts will be felt by all of you who have already been asked to do too much for too little for too many years.
“That money they are taking from Medicaid is not just disappear-ing. It is going into the pockets of the people who already have more money than they know what to do with. It is money going to the wealth-iest and most profitable corpora-tions.” He proposes that the tax rate for corporations operating in NYC should be made the same as that of neighboring New Jersey. Such a measure would raise $5 billion new revenue for NYC every year. To critics who say that such a tax would drive corporations out of NYC alto-gether, he counters that there would be few corporations who would be prepared to walk away from what is a very lucrative market.
Marissa Weaver, said she has been working at St. Barnabas for 25 years and was born and raised in New York City. She relies on Section 8 vouchers for her housing and worries about Republican threats to cap these programs after two years. Mamdani said part of the solution is his plan to build 200,000 new homes to ensure that “those who save lives in NYC are still able to afford to live in NYC.”
Along with freezing the rent on rent-stabilized apartments, making city buses run fast and free and introducing universal child care for children as young as six weeks until they are five years old, Mamdani wants to concentrate his program around affordability to make the city more livable for working people.
“It all comes back to choices made by elected officials. It costs around $700 million to make buses free, adding: “It is not that long ago in Albany that the state government, decided to give Elon Musk $950 mil-lion worth of tax credits. That money could have made buses free for the entire year, and then some.”
Acknowledging the back- breaking work that so many 1199ers do without fanfare to keep NYC healthy and cared for, he said to 1,500 Union Delegates attending the Listening Tour in Manhattan: “I may be running to be the next Mayor of this city, but I look out and I see the leaders of this city. I see people who—whether we are speaking of your hospitals, your union chapters, your communities or your families—you are the ones who give faith back to those who have lost it in politicians.”
