New York City hotel workers have ratified a new contract with the city’s hotels, securing historic wage increases and improved benefits.
On Thursday, union members of the Hotel and Gaming Trades Council voted to approve a new eight-year contract with the Hotel Association of New York, the union confirmed to Hotel Dive. The contract was tentatively agreed upon by the groups earlier this week, six weeks before the current contract’s June 30 expiration.
The ratification passed by a landslide, with 6,050 yes votes and 11 nos, a union representative shared. The new contract will cover some 27,000 workers employed at more than 200 hotels in New York City.
“For the first time in over a decade, members had the opportunity to physically cast their ballot to ratify a contract that is historic not just because of its wages and benefits, but for what it represents for nearly 30,000 workers and their families,” Rich Maroko, president of HTC, said in a statement.
With the ratification, New York City hotel workers will see the “biggest wage increases in our union’s history,” Maroko previously said. Wages for non-tipped workers are slated to increase by $21.20 over the life of the contract, which averages to more than 5% each year, according to HANYC.
Other benefits include the continuation of free healthcare for union members and their families; increased contributions to the Health Benefits Fund; and newly established housing and childcare funds, which hotels will finance “to help offset financial burdens for workers,” HANYC previously stated.
The contract is ratified as hotels nationwide grapple with rising operational costs, including labor.
However, HANYC President and CEO Vijay Dandapani said in a statement that the association is “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 pre-pandemic demand.”
With the ratification, New York City hotels avert previously anticipated workers’ strikes during the World Cup.
