Mamdani taps Education Department lawyer Liz Vladeck as NYC's chief labor negotiator

Mayor Zohran Mamdani has picked Liz Vladeck, the Department of Education's general counsel, to run the city's Office of Labor Relations, the agency that bargains with the unions representing hundreds of thousands of teachers, first responders, police officers and other civil servants, THE CITY and The Chief reported Friday.

Vladeck will succeed Commissioner Renee Campion, who announced this summer that she would retire on Dec. 1. Campion has led the office since 2019, is the first woman to serve as its commissioner and has spent nearly 24 years at the agency, according to amNewYork. A City Hall source told THE CITY she will remain commissioner until her retirement date.

A full bargaining table

The new commissioner inherits talks over how to fund PICA, a program that pays for city workers' prescription drugs, chemotherapy and other benefits. Its money sat in a fund that was declared insolvent days before Mamdani took office, THE CITY reported. Sources told the outlet that those talks are the main obstacle to opening negotiations on a new contract for District Council 37, the largest city workers' union with about 100,000 members, whose current deal expires next month, How2NewYork also reported.

The office negotiates with more than 150 unions and administers employee health benefits, amNewYork reported. Among the long-running disputes: contracts for the city's EMTs, paramedics and EMS officers, which have been expired for more than four years. When Campion's retirement was announced, the office said talks with the EMS union had recently resumed, amNewYork reported. The expired EMS contracts also figure in a city comptroller report this week on slower ambulance response times.

Who is Vladeck

Vladeck has worked in city government before but never at the Office of Labor Relations. Before joining the Education Department, she was a senior labor policy adviser to Mayor Bill de Blasio and worked on policy at his worker and consumer protection agency, THE CITY reported, citing her LinkedIn profile. She also represented private-sector unions, not management, for more than a decade (15 years, according to The Chief), and teaches labor law as an adjunct professor at New York Law School.

In a statement, Mamdani said public servants deserve a city government that takes its responsibilities to them seriously and thanked Campion for her service. Vladeck said she approaches the job "with deep respect" for the city workforce and wants to advance a broader economic justice agenda.