New York City’s mayor-elect, Zohran Mamdani, hasn’t even taken office yet, but the challenges ahead already loom large—and the eyes of the city’s workforce, tenants, and political class are firmly fixed on him. Elected in November 2025, Mamdani is stepping into City Hall with a progressive vision that promises to uplift working-class New Yorkers, overhaul housing policy, and address the city’s mounting fiscal pressures. Yet, as he prepares to govern, he faces a daunting to-do list: negotiating labor contracts that will affect 300,000 civil servants, reshaping a battered public housing system, and navigating a fraught relationship with both unions and the federal government.
Just days after his victory, Mamdani’s alliance with labor was on full display. At a rally, he embraced DC 37 Director Henry Garrido, leader of the city’s largest public-sector union. Their partnership is about to be tested as Mamdani must hammer out a new collective-bargaining agreement, with ripple effects for every municipal union in the city. According to THE CITY, the stakes are high: a new health benefits plan designed to save $1 billion annually is set to go into effect on January 1, 2026, but faces legal challenges. Meanwhile, the contract for DC 37 expires next year, and negotiations will set the pattern for wages and benefits across the municipal workforce.
Pattern bargaining, a tradition in New York City labor relations, means the first union to strike a deal sets the baseline for all others. Historically, City Hall has relied on DC 37 or the United Federation of Teachers to establish this pattern. But the fiscal outlook is grim, and the city’s health benefits fund—meant to be bolstered by savings from a now-scrapped Medicare Advantage plan—has reportedly run dry. Mayor Eric Adams’s decision to abandon the Medicare switch left a $600 million annual shortfall, one that Mamdani and the unions must now fill. The fund’s solvency is further complicated by ongoing lawsuits over the new health plan for active workers.
“Most mayors inherit this challenge,” labor historian Joshua Freeman told THE CITY. “There’s labor broadly, and then there are municipal unions with contractual relationships that have to be worked out. Mamdani hasn’t said very much about that side of labor at all, but his administration is going to have to deal with it.”
Mamdani’s campaign was built on a bold platform: raising the minimum wage to $30 an hour by 2030, hiring 1,000 new teachers per year, and maintaining the police department’s headcount at current levels. He’s also vowed to work with state lawmakers to reverse controversial Tier 6 pension reforms from 2012, which slashed benefits and raised the retirement age for future public employees. Yet, he’s sidestepped some thornier issues, such as whether to remove residency requirements for city workers—a long-standing demand from DC 37, whose members must live in the five boroughs, unlike police and firefighters who may reside in nearby counties.
Despite these hesitations, DC 37 ultimately endorsed Mamdani, joining a ranked-choice slate led by City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams. But not everyone in the labor movement is convinced. Retired city workers, many of whom live outside the city, are wary of his appointments and his stance on health care. Marianne Pizzitola, head of the NYC Organization of Public Service Retirees, expressed concern about Mamdani’s decision to bring on Robert Linn—a veteran of contentious labor negotiations—as part of his transition team. “He’s hired the same people that have made these poor decisions in the past. I don’t have any comfort level that they’re not going to guide him on the path that they were on that they took with the previous mayors,” Pizzitola told THE CITY.
Dean Fuleihan, another key appointment as first deputy mayor, played a central role in the city’s previous health savings plan. But whether Renee Campion, the city’s current chief labor negotiator and a frequent adversary of the unions, will stay on remains an open question. “We are working through all personnel decisions, and you’re seeing the mayor-elect announce them, and we’re going to continue to do so,” Fuleihan said at a recent union picket line.
Yet labor negotiations are just one front in Mamdani’s ambitious agenda. Housing policy is another. In a move that raised eyebrows, Mamdani traveled to Washington last week to meet with President Donald Trump. The two discussed New York’s Uniform Land Use Review Process (ULURP), with Trump noting, “He wants to see housing being built. He wants to see rents coming down. All things that I agree with. We may disagree on how we get there.” According to City Limits, Mamdani has come to recognize the essential role of the private market in housing construction, advocating for increased density around transit hubs, eliminating parking requirements, and upzoning affluent neighborhoods to spur affordable housing development.
On November 24, 2025, Mamdani unveiled a housing transition committee that spans the ideological spectrum: from YIMBY advocate Annemarie Gray of Open New York, to tenant leader Cea Weaver, to real estate executive Jed Walentas. “I joined this because Zohran is committed to the all-of-the-above approach to the housing crisis,” Gray said at a press conference. Mamdani’s plan includes financing 200,000 affordable units and cracking down on negligent landlords. The city’s “resume portal” has already attracted over 70,000 applications from public servants eager to join his administration, reflecting the surge of civic engagement his campaign has inspired.
But the housing crisis is acute, and nowhere is it more visible than in the city’s public housing. The New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) faces a staggering $78 billion repair backlog for its 177,000 units. In October 2025, the partial collapse of the Mitchell Houses in The Bronx underscored the system’s dire condition: over 71 buildings went without gas for nearly two weeks, and many elderly tenants were stranded by elevator outages. As reported by the New York Post, Mamdani’s promise of 200,000 new government-subsidized apartments is ambitious, but critics argue that only private investment and expertise can truly rebuild NYCHA.
The city has experimented with the Rental Assistance Demonstration (RAD) program, which channels aid directly to tenants, allowing private firms to borrow against federal revenue streams to fund repairs. While this model has succeeded in cities like Chicago and San Francisco—and in some Bronx projects—New York’s version lets tenants vote on whether to accept private financing. So far, results are mixed: some developments have opted to stick with full NYCHA management, hoping for a federal bailout, while others have embraced hybrid models with private repairs but public management. Critics contend that Mamdani has been silent on these local elections, even though the future of NYCHA may hinge on their outcome.
Meanwhile, the city’s broader housing and homelessness landscape remains fraught. Attorney General Letitia James is suing over new federal rules that threaten funding for homelessness programs, and delays in federal heating assistance are putting pressure on low-income households. The city is also eyeing major redevelopment in neighborhoods like “The Hole” on the Brooklyn-Queens border, while tenant advocates push for expanded rent protections and the revival of single-room occupancy (SRO) housing.
Mamdani’s first months in office will be a crucible. He must bridge the gap between his working-class promises and the fiscal realities of a city facing legal battles, labor unrest, and a public housing system in crisis. His appointments—veterans of past administrations, seasoned negotiators, and a diverse housing committee—suggest a willingness to draw on experience, but also raise questions about whether new leadership can truly break with old patterns. For New Yorkers, the stakes couldn’t be higher: their wages, homes, and future depend on what happens next at City Hall.
The city’s next chapter begins with a sense of possibility—and a fair share of uncertainty. As Mamdani’s administration takes shape, New Yorkers will be watching closely to see if his big promises can withstand the hard test of governing.
