at Flushing Meadows-Corona Park and spoke up for illegal-immigrant workers: "The labor movement is well placed to redefine itself around the needs of those who most need a labor union." In 2004, McLaughlin protested Mayor Bloomberg's fiscal austerity, saying, "Now is the time to invest in our public employees who have not let us down... Years of privatization and productivity schemes from City Hall have gotten us nowhere." In 2006, after McLaughlin's indictment, he was defended for his accomplishments; labor leaders "credited him with reinvigorating the Central Labor Council in a city where unions were once far more powerful." One of the many local labor leaders to praise McLaughlin during his indictment, was most notably Randi Weingarten, President of the United Federation of Teachers: "Brian took over the Central Labor Council when it was at its lowest point in terms of power, prestige and stature and made it into an important institution again... One of his big strengths is that even if you're in a fight that's unpopular, he'll stand with you." Moskowitz hearings on UFT contracts In December 2003, it was understood that New York City Councilwoman Eva Moskowitz had "garnered the undisguised ire of Randi Weingarten, the powerful head of the UFT and Brian McLaughlin" by "publicly airing the work rules that many education reformers have criticized for years." When Moskowitz held hearings in November 2003 "on how union contracts imposed inane work rules on public schools and made it nearly impossible for principals to fire bad teachers," she "went toe to toe" with Weingarten, who arranged to have McLaughlin, a longtime friend and ally, at her side during the confrontation. McLaughlin, who had opposed the hearings, said that he was there "to remind the city council members that the entire labor movement in the city is watching them." Influenced by McLaughlin's presence, then City Councilman Bill de Blasio, a strong labor supporter who would later become mayor, "did what he could to distance himself from Moskowitz during the hearing." The New York Daily News stated in an issue of November 2003, "McLaughlin did not testify. But with 1.5 million members in his labor council - many of them active, Democratic voters - he didn't have to. McLaughlin's show of political muscle demonstrated how unnerved the unions are by the hearings." In November, 2003, McLaughlin gave a speech at Queens College criticizing Moskowitz's hearings. He accused Gifford Miller,