Mamdani accused of betraying NYC workers as union boss blasts 'anti-labor' horse carriage ban
- City Council poised to pass 'Romanch's Law' June 2028, parking 160 mostly immigrant carriage drivers—many near retirement—on the curb.
- TWU Local 100's Kemp calls the mayor's 'pro-worker' pose a load of horse manure, noting the ban kills jobs overnight while promising vague 'transition' by 2027.
- PETA crows over the ban after a teen tourist's death and a collapsing horse; activists say prey animals and e-bikes in Central Park are a bad cocktail.
- Under the deal, horses can't be sold to slaughter, but drivers get no guaranteed compensation—just a promise to 'consider' medallion payouts, which Kemp likens to crocodile tears.
- Vote set for Oct. 22; supporters smell victory after 150 years of clip-clop history gets a one-way ticket to pasture.
Brief Summary
New York City's carriage industry is about to get the old yee-haw-heave-ho, as the City Council gears up to pass a bill banning horse-drawn carriages from Central Park by June 2028. Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Speaker Julie Menin have patted themselves on the back for brokering a 'just transition,' but TWU Local 100's Alexander Kemp isn't buying the hay. He's calling the ban a backstabbing, anti-labor move that'll dump roughly 160 immigrant workers—many nearing retirement with no Plan B—into the unemployment line. The bill, renamed 'Romanch's Law' after an 18-year-old tourist killed in a June carriage crash, is touted as a safety win by PETA and animal advocates, who point to a string of horse deaths and spooked-animal incidents. But Kemp argues the tragedy was a convenient pretext to ram through a long-failed animal-rights agenda, while the city's 'worker protection' plan is about as solid as a horseapple soufflé. With the vote scheduled for Oct. 22, the union boss is crying foul: you can't claim to have labor's back while yanking the feedbag off an entire trade.
Why This Matters
For the average New Yorker, this isn't just about nostalgic rides through the park or the occasional pile of manure on Fifth Avenue—it's a preview of how political promises get ground up and fed to the pigeons. If Mamdani can kill a 150-year-old industry in the name of safety and 'transition' workers into nothing, what's next? Delivery apps? Medallion cabs? The lesson here is that 'pro-worker' branding can be a Trojan horse, and the fine print often reads 'you're on your own.' Whether you're a tourist snapping photos or a driver counting down to retirement, this vote signals that city hall will trade real livelihoods for a headline-friendly win, and the 'humane' disposal of the problem is usually just a press release away.