Union workers, Council members urge Mamdani to fully fund city’s labor watchdog agency as budget deficit fears grow
Dozens of union workers rallied at City Hall on Monday to demand that the city’s Department of Consumer and Worker Protection (DCWP) receive full budgetary funding, following Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s proposed cuts to the agency’s coffers in his preliminary spending plan.
City Council Member Harvey Epstein (D-Manhattan), who chairs the Committee on Consumer and Worker Protection and organized the event, underscored the agency’s role as a watchdog and enforcement arm of NYC’s labor and consumer protection laws. “ This is not just a smart investment,” Epstein said. “This is what good policy looks like. Investing in DCWP means investing in New York, and we have an opportunity now in this transformative moment to do that.”
Labor advocates and Epstein argued that Mamdani’s preliminary budget included an 8% reduction in funding for the DCWP, from $85.5 million in the current year to $74.7 million proposed for the next fiscal year. But City Hall disputed the calculation, instead pointing out that the nearly $75 million the Mamdani administration proposed represented a 1% increase from former Mayor Eric Adams’ November proposal for the FY2027 budget, which showed DCWP funded at around $73.4 million.
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Still, the preliminary budget retreated from Mamdani’s campaign pledge to double the budget for DCWP and highlighted the agency’s crucial efforts in “fighting corporate exploitation” and recovering money for both working-class New Yorkers and the city. In 2025, DCWP recovered some $48.5 million for workers in New York City, according to the policy platforming organization The People’s Plan NYC.
https://www.amny.com/news/union-council-mamdani-labor-watchdog-agency-dcwp/
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