Two years ago, when Mayor Eric Adams delivered a collective bargaining agreement that notched higher-than-expected raises and laid the foundation for remote work for the union representing 100,000 civil servants, their for his 2025 reelection campaign may have appeared a foregone conclusion.
Instead the disgraced mayor, citing the advice of his personal lawyers, decided at the last minute his swirling corruption scandal.
Throughout the two-hour event at Borough of Manhattan Community College, the mere mention of the mayor’s name elicited a chorus of boos from the audience of rank-and-file union , a key base of for the mayor, with their endorsement on the line.
DC 37 who spoke with THE CITY said Adams’ decision to bail on the event ought to end any debate over whether their union should seriously consider endorsing him as it did in 2021. Even those who said they would have been willing to hear him out based on what they described as his strong record with labor said they’d soured on the no-show mayor in light of his absence.
“It’s horrible,” said one union member who identified herself only as Omayra. “He should have shown face. In my opinion he is disreputable.”
“It’s embarrassing, just another area where he’s lied and let people down,” said Melody Liao-Chamberlain, a member of Local 3005. “It just makes it seem like he’s not taking this seriously, doesn’t value city workers, and doesn’t value opportunities to convene with the public.”
“It’s a shame he’s our mayor,” added Liao-Chamberlain.
Audience guffawed after the evening’s , DC 37 executive director Henry Garrido, read a statement from an Adams spokesperson at the event’s kickoff, explaining his departure: “Mayor Adams is respectfully declining the invitation to participate in the union’s debate as he awaits the conclusion of his case on the advice of counsel.”
‘The Credibility Is Gone’
A half-dozen Democratic mayoral hopefuls ultimately attended the forum: former Assembly member Michael Blake (The Bronx), former city comptroller Scott Stringer, Assemblymember Zohran Mamdani (Queens), current city comptroller Brad Lander, and state Sen. Zellnor Myrie (Brooklyn). State Sen. Jessica Ramos of Queens arrived an hour late.
Even as the mayoral hopefuls articulated their vision for affordable housing, health care, education and public safety, the pall of Adams’ absence hung over the evening. The dozens of active city workers, retirees and union delegates in the audience hardly contained their glee at the candidates’ repeated jabs at the mayor.
“If a candidate did not have the heart to be here, they should not be your mayor,” Blake said in his closing arguments.
Some union bargain to help the Trump istration with its deportation goals in exchange for the Department of Justice to withdraw the criminal charges against him.
“The credibility is gone,” said a member of Local 371, which represents social service workers, who asked to remain anonymous. “To have a mayor who s a president who’s trying to destroy unions is not sitting well with a lot of people.” He was referencing the mass firing of federal workers and the “dismantling” of the federal National Labor Relations Board, which is unable to operate following Trump’s dismissal of board .
He added that Adams’ capitulation to Trump’s agenda was making his job in a social services agency more difficult: “It pisses me off that immigrant children are struggling and scared to get help because of the climate that we are in.”
Several of Local 3005, which represents scientists at the city’s health department, designed and printed t-shirts that read “Adams Resign” just for the occasion.
“He’s disqualified himself in so many ways,” said a Local 3005 member who identified herself only as Gretchen T. “For him to not show up to this , is also telling of how he is focused on his own self-preservation versus on what is good for the City of New York.”
