Lander endorses bill sponsored by fellow mayoral candidate Ramos

In the spirit of New York City Climate Week, mayoral candidate and city Comptroller Brad Lander is out with a new report on the effects of extreme heat on outdoor city workers. As part of its recommendations, Lander suggests that state lawmakers approve legislation requiring employers to implement protections for extreme heat. And that bill happens to be sponsored by another candidate running for mayor of New York City, state Sen. Jessica Ramos. So far, the two progressive candidates have largely trained their fire on incumbent New York City Mayor Eric Adams rather than criticizing each other, which could be a viable strategy thanks to ranked-choice voting.

The new report from Lander, shared exclusively with City & State, found that about 1.4 million people in New York City – roughly a third of the city’s workforce – work outdoors for prolonged periods of time. Lander said even he was surprised to learn just how many New Yorkers work outside as extreme weather and heat continue to get worse every year. “Unfortunately, every year I've been comptroller has been the hottest year ever, until the next one,” he said, adding that many New Yorkers are focused on the risk of major storms and hurricanes, “but heat is the deadliest part of climate change.”

The report also found that outdoor workers are disproportionately non-citizens and people of color, and that the more outdoor exposure a job requires, the lower the pay for the job becomes.

As part of his recommendations, Lander is pushing for state lawmakers to approve the TEMP Act, which would require employers in the state to implement protections against extreme heat conditions including shade, water and breaks. The bill is sponsored by state Sen. Jessica Ramos, the chair of her chamber’s Labor Committee – and one of Lander’s opponents in the race for mayor. “We're very natural and long standing allies in support of workers,” Lander said. “We like working together to defend the rights of New York's workers, and that sure doesn't change because of the campaign.”

The 2025 mayoral election will be the second time that New York City residents will cast votes for mayor using ranked-choice voting. A number of ideologically similar candidates, including Lander and Ramos, have already emerged with sharp criticism of Adams. “One good feature of (ranked-choice voting) is that it allows people to continue working together on things exactly like this without thinking all the time about the political competition,” Lander said of openly supporting legislation from one of his competitors. He said it’s too soon to offer any kind of cross-endorsements, which can be common with ranked-choice voting, but that he’s “happy to have a report that's supportive of Sen. Ramos’ legislation.”

Ramos said that she is happy to have the support of Lander, despite the upcoming competition. “Essential workers are at the frontline of the climate crisis, and with an unchecked Supreme Court chipping away at federal agencies’ ability to protect workers, states need to step up,” she said in a statement to City & State. “I am dead set on passing TEMP, and I thank the Comptroller for providing me with the data to take back to Albany to help me make my case.”

In addition to passing the TEMP Act, Lander’s report also recommends a variety of actions that the city can take to protect workers, particularly those who would not be covered by the TEMP Act like street vendors and delivery workers. “Some of it (is) quite simple – just allowing street vendors to have umbrellas on their carts,” Lander said, adding that he didn’t even know this was a problem before this new report. It also recommends expanding outdoor heat standards and City Council legislation to set labor standards for unsafe air quality levels.

Lander said that some of the recommendations can be implemented through administrative changes and could easily get done within the next year, if the will is there. “There's a level of distraction at City Hall these days that, I think, unfortunately, is making action more difficult on the things that matter most to New Yorkers,” Lander said, alluding to the many investigations into the Adams administration and the high profile resignations of his top advisers. Shortly after Lander spoke with City & State, news broke that Schools Chancellor David Banks – who had his home searched by federal investigators earlier this month – would retire from his position at the end of the year. “Keeping focus and attention on solving a seasonal problem when it's not that season is a challenge,” Lander said. “And at the moment, getting City Hall to focus on issues that matter every day to working New Yorkers is a challenge.”

At his weekly off-topic press conference on Tuesday, Adams once again denied that the turbulence in and around City Hall is affecting his ability to effectively govern. “I'm going to continue to do the job I'm supposed to do as the mayor of the City of New York, and I'm going to fight for New Yorkers, and I'm going to continue to do that,” the mayor said.