Posts tagged Hotel and Gaming Trades Council
NYC hotel maids now make more than rookie cops, firefighters, teachers — as union averts strike following new salary agreement
May 27, 2026 // Hotel maids in NYC already out-earn rookie cops, firefighters and even teachers with master’s degrees — and they just got a raise. The Hotel and Gaming Trades Council, the union representing 22,000 city hotel workers, ratified the new contract Thursday that will bring housekeepers to $77,113 on July 1 with $110,000 in salary alone in the sixth year. The agreement made last weekend with the hotel owners averted a strike that was already throwing a wrench into the city’s America 250 celebrations and the FIFA World Cup as visitors said they were afraid to make reservations if a strike was at hand.
Whistleblower Bombshell Shakes Midtown Hotel Union As Owners Quietly Dig In
May 26, 2026 // New York hotel owners have quietly launched internal reviews after a whistleblower alleged corruption inside the Hotel and Gaming Trades Council, the powerful union that represents thousands of hospitality workers across the city. The allegations surfaced this month and have hotel bosses rethinking negotiations and communications at a particularly sensitive time for the industry.
New York City Unions Keep Winning Six-Figure Salaries
May 21, 2026 // Business owners say the wage increases will raise prices for consumers, with higher hotel bills and healthcare costs. In its negotiations, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority argued that the wage increases that Long Island Rail Road unions were asking for would lead to higher fares or increased borrowing. Labor economists and union supporters said union victories in New York City could be hard to replicate elsewhere, but across the country unions have been flexing a bit more muscle in recent years. And other workers, struggling to keep up with rising costs, could take notice.
Reason: Union Summer
May 21, 2026 // They're at it again: Yesterday, the unions representing the Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) workers reached an agreement with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, the state agency that runs the railroad. It's not yet clear what's in the agreement, but the demands of the striking workers were rather extraordinary: Pay raises of 5 percent, plus three years of retroactive raises since their last contract was hammered out in 2022. This might make sense if they were destitute, but they are not: "More than 325 Long Island Rail Road workers are raking in over $100,000 a year in overtime on top of their lucrative salaries, with 11 of them netting at least twice that huge figure in OT," reports New York Post (below yesterday's perfect headline: "Gravy Train").
N.Y.C. Hotel Housekeepers Will Earn Over $100,000 Under New Contract
May 19, 2026 // “They’re going to try to offset that by raising rates,” he said. But how successful they would be is unclear, given that New York City already has the highest average room rates of any big city in the United States, at about $335 a night, Mr. Pequeno said. In the past year, New York hotels have also had the nation’s highest occupancy rate, at about 84 percent, he said. The agreement between the hotel workers and the industry comes about six weeks before the expiration of the current 14-year contract. For more than a year, union officials had been preparing for a strike in early July, just before the celebration of the 250th birthday of the United States and the final of FIFA’s World Cup tournament at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey.
NEW JERSEY: Menendez picks up support from two unions that stayed neutral in 2024
January 8, 2026 // When Rep. Rob Menendez (D-Jersey City) was in the fight for his political life during the 2024 Democratic primary elections, two of the state’s most prominent and progressive-leaning unions, the Hotel and Gaming Trades Council and 32BJ SEIU, chose to remain neutral in his race.
Rivers Casino Portsmouth First Virginia Gaming Property to Unionize
November 5, 2025 // The Local 822 Teamsters chapter said workers at the Portsmouth casino backed unionizing with 95% support. The Norfolk-based union, which primarily represents freight and manufacturing employees in the region, says the Rivers Casino contract sets a precedent for fairness, wages, and workplace protections in Virginia’s rapidly emerging gaming industry. Local 822 represents workers at UPS, UPS Freight, ABF Freight, and Pepsi. Rivers has now been added to the list.
An embattled Adams gathers his union allies at Gracie Mansion
January 31, 2025 // Mayor Eric Adams, who has been laying low with a reported medical condition this week, hosted two union presidents at Gracie Mansion on Monday night as he contemplates his political future. The meetings — confirmed by two people with direct knowledge of them, who were granted anonymity to freely discuss a private event — come as Adams grapples with an upcoming corruption trial, sagging poll numbers and dire financial problems.