Hotel Management and Union Ratify New Hotel Workers Agreement

The city’s biggest hotel operators and the Hotel & Gaming Trades Council (HTC), the union which represents 40,0000 hotel and gaming workers across New York and New Jersey, have reached an agreement on a new eight-year contract which will hike pay by 50 percent pay hike and boost the average worker’s salary to over $100,000 a year over the course of the contract.

Following an all-day ratification vote May 21 the agreement was confirmed, confirmed by rank and file workers, according to Hotel Dive, after reaching a tentative agreement May 18. During the vote, 6,050 ballots voted yes, while 11 voted no, a union representative told Hotel Drive.

Hotel and Gaming Trade Council President Rich Maroko said workers had been ready to strike and that helped put the union in a strong position with the start of the World Cup only weeks away. “In the end, we would not have won this agreement without the dedication of our members and the very real threat that we would strike<” he said. “The threat of a strike or a picket line is our union’s most powerful weapon. In every contract fight, we need management to understand that if they won’t agree to a fair contract at the bargaining table, we will take our fight to the streets.”

The new eight year agreement will last eight years, will increase wages by five percent each year wage putting the average hotel worker on a path to earn a six figure salaries by 2034. Additionally, the new agreement seeks includes free family healthcare, increased pension contributions, new benefit funds and expanded rights at work, according to union officials.

Over 90 hotels, including significant hotel chains like Ritz Carlton and Hilton, participated in the negotiations and voted, while almost 100 hotels were designated ‘Me-Too’ shops, who would have been bound to be automatically covered by the new IWA no matter the outcome of negotiations. Within New York, there remain 45 outstanding hotels who have not yet agreed to the new IWA, according to HTC, with most being smaller boutiques whose contract does not need to be renewed till June 30. HTC has stated that they remain dedicated to having these non-bargaining hotels to sign to the new IWA after their contract is complete.

Vijay Dandapani, president and CEO of the Hotel Association of NYC which represented management in the negotiations said in a statement that the organization was “proud the New York hotel industry will continue to provide the best pay and benefits in the country-especially since we are facing tremendous economic headwinds and the highest taxes in the nation, have lost 20,000 hotel rooms since COVID, and are still below prepandemic demand.”

NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who HTC endorsed during his election, similarly praised the outcome, “Congratulations to HTC for winning a transformative contract for our city’s hotel workers. With this contract, tens of thousands of hotel housekeepers, cooks, servers, dishwashers, and staff can afford to continue calling New York City home.”