Manhattan Borough President and candidate for NYC Comptroller Mark Levine speaks on the CAM Summit on the Ziegfeld Theater on March 22, 2025.
Picture by Gabriele Holtermann
New York is, and all the time has been, a union city.
From the ashes of tragedy to the picket traces of progress, lots of the most consequential victories for working folks started right here in Manhattan. As we mark Might Day—Worldwide Staff’ Day—we honor that legacy and remind ourselves that the combat for truthful pay, dignity, and security at work is way from over.
Might Day traces its roots to the Haymarket Affair tragedy in Chicago in 1886. After the lethal assaults on a peaceable labor rally in assist of the 8-hour day, staff throughout the nation walked off their jobs in an enormous signal of unity and protest.
Since then, Might 1st has turn out to be a world image of labor resistance. Very like the Triangle Shirtwaist Manufacturing unit hearth that struck right here in Manhattan many years later, a second of tragedy helped catalyze a era of progress and reform.
Out of those actions got here the inspiration of contemporary office protections: youngster labor legal guidelines, the weekend, time beyond regulation pay, and the concept each employee deserves rights, security, and respect on the job.
It’s no coincidence that Might Day and Worldwide Ladies’s Day originate from the labor motion. Right here in Manhattan, the 2 struggles have all the time been intertwined. Ladies, immigrants, and folks of coloration have traditionally been the spine of this metropolis’s workforce and the soul of its labor motion.
One of the potent examples is Clara Lemlich, a younger Jewish immigrant and garment employee on the Decrease East Aspect. In 1909, at simply 23 years outdated, she stood up at a union assembly and referred to as for a normal strike, igniting the “Rebellion of the 20,000″—an enormous walkout led by girls within the garment business.
Their calls for had been easy: truthful pay, secure circumstances, and human dignity. Their braveness set the stage for sweeping labor victories in New York and past, and their voices echo in each combat for staff’ rights immediately.
As we have fun our metropolis’s wealthy historical past of union organizing and labor victories, we should stay vigilant in opposition to the challenges we face immediately.
Throughout the nation, billionaires like Elon Musk are attacking labor organizers whereas praising authoritarian fashions of office management. Main firms are busting unions and retaliating when their workers demand higher working circumstances.
In the meantime, Donald Trump is trying to dismantle federal unions by government order, rescinding public staff’ proper to affix a union and stripping away their collective bargaining rights.
These assaults don’t cease at public sector unions. They threaten to destroy the fundamental concept that staff have a proper to truthful remedy within the office and deserve a seat on the desk. And we should combat again.
It’s why we’re combating to guard the suitable to arrange and collectively cut price in workplaces throughout the town. We’re combating for secure staffing in healthcare settings, class measurement mandates in our school rooms, challenge labor agreements on metropolis property, and protections in opposition to wage theft and misclassification. We’re pushing for metropolis contracts to pay pretty and on time and calling for elevated funding for municipal staff within the price range.
As a result of our metropolis depends on staff who maintain us secure, wholesome, housed, clothed, and cared for. And since truthful wages, advantages, time without work, and job safety aren’t luxuries—they’re the foundations of a functioning economic system and our social cloth.
As we glance forward, let’s do not forget that labor constructed Manhattan. From the practice tunnels to the hospitals, the lecture rooms to the garment outlets, this borough was formed by working individuals who demanded extra and made this metropolis higher for all of us.
Let’s honor their legacy with reflection and motion by constructing employee energy, combating to broaden labor rights, and displaying that even within the face of assaults from Washington, D.C. – New York will all the time be a union city.
