Unions urge veto of buffer zone bill

Leaders of local community groups and unions representing education workers reiterated their call for Mayor Zohran Mamdani to veto a bill that critics warn would stifle free speech across the city. City Council bill 175-B, which tasks the NYPD with creating a plan to erect “security perimeters” around educational facilities across the city, passed with a 30-to-19 margin in the 52-member body despite union opposition in the days leading up to the vote last month.  

The legislation was drafted with the goal of ensuring the safety of students and faculty in and around schools while increasing the transparency of police response to protests, its sponsor Council Member Eric Dinowitz has said. The bill also has a specific exemption for union activity, with language saying the provisions in the legislation should not “infringe upon rights granted under the national labor relations act or the labor law.” 

But James Davis, the president of the Professional Staff Congress at CUNY and a Mamdani ally, insisted at a rally April 17 that the bill does not protect New Yorkers or improve police transparency, as its supporters argue. 

"The impact of this bill would not just be felt in New York City it would have implications nationally, it would have a chilling effect on the very same rights that the Trump administration is trying to, as we speak, restrict on or near our campuses,” he said. “The NYPD already has the tools it needs at its disposal to regulate non-violent protests." 

The rally last week on the buffer zone bill drew educators, students and union leaders.

Harper Freeman/ The Chief

The PSC was one of over 200 local groups, including several unions allied with Mamdani like United Auto Workers Region 9A, to send a letter to the mayor urging him to veto the legislation. The groups, including the Democratic Socialists of America, argued that the bill would inhibit free speech, would not make students safer and could undercut labor organizing.  

Mamdani late last month said that he was aware of the “serious concerns” that New Yorkers have raised about the bill. Later, at an April 17 press conference, he said that he has “heard from a number of New Yorkers about their concerns about aspects of this legislation.” 

The margin that 175-B passed the Council with is not veto-proof, unlike a similar bill focused on religious sites in the city that passed 44 to 5. Mamdani added that he would announce his decision on the veto publicly before the end of this week, when the deadline for his decision hits. 

Its supporters hope he signs the bill, or lets it lapse into law.  

"Students and educators deserve to enter their school buildings free from harassment and intimidation. Int. 175-B helps ensure just that,” Dinowitz said in a statement. “This legislation brings much-needed transparency and accountability to NYPD protocols, while fully protecting our fundamental right to free speech. Any claim to the contrary is simply not grounded in the text of the bill." 

Harper Freeman/ The Chief

Chenjerai Kumanyika, an assistant professor of Journalism at NYU and member of the Association of American University Professor’s at-large council, spoke at the rally last week as well, and insisted the bill was not about student safety.

Speaking at the rally, Kumanyika recalled when he was detained by the NYPD at a peaceful pro-Palestine protest on NYU’s campus where Muslim and Jewish students were holding interfaith prayer services. He said he feared the bill’s vague language would empower the NYPD to crack down at future protests even further. 

“We recognize that this is part of a national attack, even an international attack, on democratic life and educational spaces,” he said. "When language is vague, that leaves the decision in the hands of the police to decide, and we know that they too often decide to choose that a peaceful protest and free speech is actually some kind of threat.”