Firefighters, Many Large Unions Endorse Mayoral Candidate Eric Adams

By Yehudit Garmaise

  The Uniformed Fire Officers Association (UFOA) has endorsed mayoral candidate Eric Adams in the June 22 Democratic primary at the Fire Station at 4120 12th Avenue.

  Citing the 22 years of experience in the NYPD as strongly figuring in the UFOA’s choice to endorse Brooklyn’s borough president, the firefighters’ association encouraged all New York City residents to support Adams because he “understands New Yorkers: because he is one and has served them his whole career.”

   “After careful consideration," the UFOA Executive Board unanimously endorsed Eric Adams. Being born and raised in New York City and patrolling the streets of the city as a uniformed member of the NYPD, it is evident that Eric Adams is the right choice to lead the city out of these trying times,” said UFOA president Jake Lemonda.

   In turn, when Adams spoke today in Brooklyn, he expressed the extra value he ascribes to the fire officers’ endorsement because, like the NYPD, the UFOA represents workers who are “on the streets” and “engaged.”

    In particular, Adams, who has long put public safety at the top of his agenda, pointed out that while other mayoral candidates appear so far-removed from what would be appropriate policy changes for the city that they are proposing the legalization of crack cocaine, heroine, and Fentanyl. 

   “[Those ideas are not going to contribute] to the city we want to have,” Adams told BoroPark24.

   “We witnessed the devastation our city experienced during some very dark days, and we are unified in not returning to those days.

   “Those fire houses were located, in the 1970s and 1980s, in places like Bushwick, Brownville, East New York, where buildings were burning down [due to arson, crime, and general destructiveness]. Crime was burning down the spirits of people. Crime was destroying communities.”

  The FDNY, Adams explained, has an up-close understanding “of what the city was going through in those year, and we are not going back to that. The FDNY has always been responding to the gunshots.”

   “We understand what the city was going through then, and we are not going backwards.”

    The UFOA's endorsement, said Adams, “is not just a paper tiger.

   “This [endorsement] is a real tiger that is going to roar throughout the entire city. This is a big one.”

   Adams told the firefighters in Boro Park today, “It’s an honor to have the support of members of New York’s bravest: the men and women who protect us and keep us safe. Our city’s public safety is paramount, and I am humbled that the firefighter officers think I will be up to the task.”

  In the last few days, Adams also has won the backings of a diverse array of large unions, such as the Hotel Trade Council workers union, SEIU Local 32-BJ representing building workers, District Council 37, the largest union representing city government workers, and the Public Employees Federation, one of the largest public employees’ union.

Photo Credit: Samuel Solinsky