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Sanders and Mamdani back launch of nonprofit to support union organizing and strikes
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Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani on Sunday threw their support behind the launch of Union Now, a new nonprofit meant to support workers involved in organizing drives, strikes, and contract fights and help unions coordinate large-scale campaigns against major employers, at a Manhattan event led by labor leaders.
Sara Nelson, president of the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, said Union Now was launching as a 501(c)(3) that would directly support workers who are organizing, striking or fighting for fair contracts. She said the group would work with unions to help ensure workers have the resources to sustain those fights and build campaigns at a larger scale.
“Union Now will work with unions directly to ensure workers have the means to win. And if we commit to do this together, adopt the campaigns that you hear about today as your own, we can organize at a scale to win big fights against big employers,” said Nelson.
According to its mission statement, the new nonprofit aims to raise money to directly support workers who are organizing and striking, while also building a network of unions that can support one another financially, strategically and on the ground in campaigns against some of the country’s largest employers.
Mamdani sees union movement as part of fight against inequality
Mamdani cast the effort as part of a broader push to increase union density, calling it an effective response to income inequality and saying his administration would stand alongside workers.
Nationally, wealth inequality has continued to widen. The latest figures from the Federal Reserve show that the top 1% held nearly 32% of U.S. household wealth in 2025 — roughly as much as the bottom 90% combined. Meanwhile, in NYC, 62% of New Yorkers — about 5.04 million people — do not have enough resources to meet the city’s “true cost of living,” according to a recent report from the Mamdani administration.
Hizzoner also described New York as a union city whose daily life, public services, and cultural identity are sustained by organized labor, and warned that AI, automation, and weakening worker protections were raising the stakes for labor organizing.
“New York City has been, is now, and will forever be, a union town,” the mayor declared. “I’m so proud to be here today as we launch Union Now, because when we talk about the importance of taking on the crisis of income inequality, we know that the most effective tool to do so is increasing union density.”
“And I’m so excited at the power and the potential that an organization singularly focused on exactly that will have across this country,” he added.
Photo by Lloyd Mitchell
Photo by Lloyd Mitchell
Sanders told the crowd the country was in an unusually dangerous moment and said “status quo” politics and economics were no longer enough for working- and middle-class Americans.
“We need a new boldness in our thinking and a new boldness in our ideology and a new aggressiveness in our actions,” said Sanders.
He framed the labor movement as part of a larger fight against concentrated wealth and power: “There is an extraordinary level of arrogance and cruelty and… like the monarchs of the 19th century, they believe that they have the divine right to rule.”
“It’s not just for us, it’s for our kids, our grandchildren, and the future generations to come. Never before in American history have so few people had so much welfare and power,” Sanders added.
Other speakers supporting Union Now tied that message to ongoing workplace campaigns. Jerome Sloss, an Amazon delivery driver and Teamsters member from Brooklyn, urged workers to build community and organize their co-workers.
Connor Spence, president of Amazon Labor Union-Teamsters Local 1, said Amazon workers were still fighting after years of union busting and legal delays, but pointed to recent progress, including movement-backed gains tied to strike protections and bargaining.
Brett Wilcox of Communications Workers of America Local 9510 said organizing in the video game and tech industries had grown rapidly, with workers pressing for wage increases, layoff protections, and a say over how generative AI is used on the job
