Senator Jessica Ramos, Champion of Families and Workers, Runs for Mayor
As New York's current mayor undergoes investigations and indictments, a proven advocate of the people is running to take his place.
In September State Senator Jessica Ramos announced that she was running to unseat Mayor Eric Adams. She said, “I think as of late, with all of the scandals surrounding his administration, it's more evident than ever that the mayor is distracted and not able to grind,” making reference to a frequent Adams mantra.
Jessica Ramos, a progressive state senator from Queens who has built a reputation as a fighter for New York City’s working class—which includes immigrants, families, and unions—announced this month that she will join the field of candidates preparing to challenge Mayor Eric Adams in next year’s primary.
She believes the city had become “divisive and polarized” under Adams and promises to usher “a new era for New Yorkers” that bridges differences between residents in different boroughs and focuses on making the city more affordable.
“I think as of late, with all of the scandals surrounding his administration, it's more evident than ever that the mayor is distracted and not able to grind,” Ramos said, making reference to a frequent Adams mantra.
In a previous interview with Union-Built Matters, before she was able to lead the passage of Carlos' Law through the state Senate, Senator Ramos explained her connection to the working people in her district and why they needed advocates like her.
A Deep Connection to Working People
Senator Ramos is a first-generation Columbian-American who grew up in a working household in Jackson Heights, Queens, where she still lives. She has personally witnessed how powerful developers and contractors have abused the non-union construction workers in her district and beyond. She has explained that many friends' family members had suffered directly from crimes like wage theft, safety neglect and more.
As a result, few understand the impact of unions better than her, which may explain why she chairs the Senate Labor Committee. In her fight to level the playing field for New York City workers, she has successfully shepherded a string of victories for laborers that include the signing of the Wage Theft Law and the passing of Carlos’ Law through the senate.
We’ve all heard the stories of overwork and abuse inside Amazon warehouses. Of workers peeing in bottles or dying in sweltering warehouses during Prime Day frenzies. Meanwhile, these warehouses are proliferating across at a rate that Senator Ramos describes as “dumbfounding.”
So Senator Ramos introduced the Warehouse Workers Protection Act that targets Amazon’s “productivity quotas” used to evaluate and penalize workers. It forces employers to disclose their quotas and to place limits on them when they risk the health and safety of workers. Before its passage, Senator Ramos explained that “The Warehouse Worker Protection Act will give workers in this industry—union or not—the ability to demand that their health and bodily integrity is accounted for, not sacrificed for profits they do not get to share in.”
On climate change, Senator Ramos dispenses with the false notion that achieving a greener economy will cost workers’ jobs. She says, “green jobs are more jobs. Better jobs.”
She has a unique sense of urgency in addressing this issue because she represents communities disproportionately impacted by climate-change-intensified storms: “We need a transition to clean energy, to renewable energy, to wind and solar energy.” Unions are leading the way by mastering the skills for building a green future, and by organizing.
Protecting Warehouse Workers and Our Environment
Last year Senator Ramos sat down with journalist Walker Bragman for Union-Built Matters to discuss a wide range of topics including Robert De Niro’s new movie studio, climate change, Amazon’s grueling labor practices, New York’s covid response and more.
A Fighter
The working world of New York City has become hazardous for workers in new ways and in old. Even with new laws on the books, powerful interests have ways to corrupt the workplace to their benefit and harm working class people. Looking out for the working class, for their welfare, for their fair pay, for their respect, is New York’s fiercest worker advocate, Senator Jessica Ramos. Now running for mayor. Take the time to get to know her record and her agenda.
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