Hotel Workers
Our union's master contract in New York City is the best contract in the world for hotel workers.
Nearly 30,000 workers across 250 New York City hotels work under our union's Industry-Wide Agreement.
This contract is decades in the making, with the first Industry-Wide Agreement ("IWA") signed in 1939. Today, a union room attendant makes $39.87 per hour, has free family healthcare, and has an employer-funded pension – not to mention, unmatched rights on the job including scheduling rights, fair workloads, health and safety protections, and extra pay.
NYC is facing an affordability crisis. Even at almost $40/hour, 40% of our NYC members don’t have enough saved to cover a $400 emergency expense and 50% spend more than half of their monthly income on housing. The current IWA expires on June 30, 2026, for the first time in 14 years. Securing significant wage increases for NYC's hotel workers will be a top priority at the bargaining table.
Union participation soars to 8,000 member volunteers
Member turnout fuels everything that we do.
By attending union trainings, showing up to union rallies, and volunteering before or after their shifts to get out the vote for pro-union candidates, our members have taken our union's power to the next level.
In 2025, our union celebrated record-breaking turnout, with over 8,000 members volunteering.
A political powerhouse
Our union has repeatedly fought for – and won – innovative laws that protect consumers and workers in New York City.
The Safe Hotels Act offers unprecedented protections for hotel workers, the public, and guests. The law requires New York City hotels to become licensed in order to operate and gives city officials enforcement powers to make sure that hotels meet basic cleanliness standards and satisfy common-sense safety requirements. The law also stops hotels with 100 rooms or more from entering into new contracts with subcontracting agencies for housekeeping and front desk.
Our union was able to pass this law against enormous, well-funded opposition because hundreds of HTC members showed up to fight for these protections.
Our union worked with New York State elected officials to make dramatic improvements to unemployment in 2025 – increasing the maximum weekly benefit by nearly 75% and reducing the waiting period for striking workers to the shortest wait in the nation.
These improvements will provide direct support to HTC members if management forces us to strike and send a clear, unequivocal message to the hotel industry: “Albany has our back.”
Airbnb is a direct threat to our members’ jobs and the communities where they live. Our union has fought for reasonable restrictions on short-term rentals and platforms like Airbnb. We’ve sounded the alarm at massive rallies and City Hall hearings, in media interviews and politicians’ offices: short-term rentals threaten layoffs across the hotel industry and worsen New York City's housing crisis.
After years of advocacy from tenants, community activists, and hotel workers, Airbnb listings in NYC are down by 92% – returning tens of thousands of apartments to the housing market.
Fighting for a fair contract
June 30, 2026. That's the date that the Industry Wide Agreement is set to expire, for the first time in 14 years. The next agreement we negotiate will define the pay, benefits, and rights on the job for NYC hotel workers for years to come – and we’re determined to make sure it’s our strongest and highest-paying contract yet.
Our union started preparing for these negotiations years in advance. We dedicated the pages of the Summer 2025 Hotel Voice to a few of the strategies where our members play the biggest role, including building the HEAT SYSTEM, organizing workers at non-union hotels to protect our high union density, running creative public campaigns, and building political influence.
The story of the first contract
In 1939, New York City hotel workers signed the first IWA. The first IWA was not won easily. It was the result of a series of strikes and organizing drives over multiple of decades, launched by brave workers who were determined to put an end to poverty wages and exploitative working conditions in the hotel industry.
"If I were asked to summarize what we accomplished on January 18, 1939, I would say that above all, with the signing of the first contract, we brought dignity to one of the most depressed and exploited categories of workers."
– JAY RUBIN, Former HTC President