Labor unions, council members and worker justice advocates will come together Monday to call on the Mamdani administration to fully fund the New York City Department of Consumer and Worker Protection.
The rally, which will take place on City Hall’s steps at noon, comes after Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s preliminary budget plan for fiscal year 2027 proposed an 8% cut to the agency’s funding. That would translate to about $75 million for the coming fiscal year – down from $82 million in fiscal year 2026.
As a candidate, Mamdani promised to double DCWP’s budget, vowing to significantly ramp up operations as he cast the agency as a core pillar of his worker protection agenda. As mayor, Mamdani has foregrounded the work of DCWP and its new Commissioner Sam Levine. Just last week, they did a viral mukbang to announce settlements from Dunkin’ Donuts and Taco Bell franchisees. Asked about funding for the agency during that online event, the mayor said, “We have an executive budget that we are working on and that we’ll be releasing a little over a month from now, and DCWP and the work that DCWP does is a critical part of those conversations.”
Advocates have warned that cutting funding could hamper DCWP’s ability to investigate complaints, combat wage theft and exploitative labor practices and enforce settlements – things likely to disproportionately impact the many immigrant workers who rely on the agency for protection.
Monday’s rally seeks to emphasize these points. It’ll likely be a broad showing. So far, residential building services workers union 32BJ SEIU, the powerful Hotel and Gaming Trades Council and UAW are slated to attend.
“New York City cannot afford to turn its back on the workers who keep this city running,”
said Council Member Harvey Epstein, who organized the effort.
