A Letter from HTC President Rich Maroko
April 30, 2025 4:48 PM
In July 2026, our union’s Industry-Wide Agreement in NYC is set to expire after more than a decade. Our union has been preparing and setting the stage for these negotiations for years. And while we are still many months away from the start of negotiations, we need to start mobilizing our members now. One of the most important tools we will bring to the bargaining table next year is our ability to take collective action if necessary. This is where our union’s HEAT SYSTEM comes in.
HEAT – Hotel Employees Action Team
In 2005, our union created the HEAT SYSTEM (HEAT stands for “Hotel Employees Action Team”) to engage our members ahead of the IWA contract negotiations in 2006. We anticipated a fight at the bargaining table, and we needed to be ready to do whatever it might take to win a strong contract – including launching a city-wide strike.
The HEAT SYSTEM was created as a way to make sure that members were informed during negotiations and could mobilize to take action quickly if needed. To pull this off, our union appointed members in every hotel, department, and shift to lead as HEAT CAPTAINS. HEAT CAPTAINS then assembled HEAT TEAMS of coworkers with whom they were responsible for communicating important updates, readying for a strike, and bringing to union actions.
2,700 members took on the responsibility of being HEAT CAPTAINS in 2006.
Leading up to 2006, 2,700 members took on the responsibility of being HEAT CAPTAINS and 90% of our members joined a HEAT TEAM. The impact was astounding. Now able to engage our members in great numbers, we were able to credibly threaten a city-wide strike. Management watched us build the HEAT SYSTEM. The more the possibility of a strong, coordinated union action became apparent, the less management wanted to risk negotiations escalating to a strike. Largely because of the work HEAT did, we came out of those negotiations with the strongest contract in the world – without a strike.
In the years since 2006, we have kept HEAT alive as a way to train and mobilize our members and make the most of their talents, ideas, and energy. Thousands of active members from 2006 have continued to give their time building our union’s power, and thousands of new members have joined them. It’s because of HEAT and the work of our dedicated members that, over the last twenty years, we have:
- Successfully elected hundreds of pro-labor politicians;
- Passed multiple state and local laws that protect our jobs and benefit working people (including strict regulations of illegal hotels, Special Permits, the Consumer Protection Law, the Displaced Hotel Service Workers Act, the Safe Hotels Act, and more);
- Organized over 200 new properties and welcomed over 13,000 new members;
- Protected our contract rights by resolving tens of thousands of grievances; and
- Maintained our reputation with the industry as tough and unified.
In preparation for the 2026 Contract Fight, members at each union shop will assemble units known as HEAT TEAMS.
Each HEAT TEAM is built around one union member, the HEAT CAPTAIN, who is appointed by the President of the union to lead their HEAT TEAM.
It’s time to organize – Join a HEAT TEAM!
Leading up to July 2026, we need to take HEAT to the next level by once again appointing HEAT CAPTAINS and assembling HEAT TEAMS across our NYC hotels. Each HEAT TEAM will consist of 10 to 15 union members and will be built around one union member, the HEAT CAPTAIN, who will be appointed by union leadership.
This new generation of HEAT CAPTAINS will be responsible for attending regular trainings and union meetings, participating in union actions (including pickets and rallies), and mobilizing their HEAT TEAM to do the same.
We are still months away from the start of negotiations, but we need to start mobilizing now so we are ready when the time comes. Once negotiations begin, HEAT CAPTAINS will be responsible for sharing updates about contract negotiations with their HEAT TEAM, reporting to union organizers what management is planning and saying about negotiations, and preparing their coworkers to be ready to strike, if that’s what it takes.
2026 negotiations
We know what we need to win in 2026, and it’s a lot. At the top of a long list are higher wages and the money we need to secure our medical and pension benefits. No one should be under the illusion that this will be easy. We need to be ready to fight, and the HEAT SYSTEM is one critical part of our strategy.
Our union starts the preparation for contract fights years in advance. This includes dozens of discrete tactics and strategies, like pushing for legislation that would maximize the impact of a strike, organizing new hotels to increase union density, devising corporate strategies, and strategically negotiating 'Me-Too' agreements with a goal of improving future contracts.
Now, we're starting to prepare our members as the next part of our long-term plan.
Everything we do is in an effort to keep building our power so we can continue to win strong contracts and improve the lives of hotel and gaming workers. In order to be successful, we need every union member to actively participate in and support the HEAT SYSTEM. Ahead of 2026 negotiations, there are three immediate actions you should take.
First, you should join a HEAT TEAM – or reach out to your HEAT Organizer about leading one.
Second, you should attend the Protect our union’s power training (PUP for short) at our headquarters in Midtown. The PUP training will teach you how our union organizes, how we win contracts, how we build and use political power, and how we use collective action to tackle the various threats facing our organization.
Third, you should let us know what’s most important to you. You can take our member survey using by clicking here.
I look forward to seeing many of you as the months count down to 2026.
In solidarity,
Rich Maroko
HTC President
