You are reading: Hotel Voice Summer 2025

The Surrey has been a landmark NYC hotel for over 100 years – hosting presidents, royalty, and dignitaries. What made this hotel iconic was not the building or its famous clientele – it was the nearly 100 hard-working union members who greeted the guests, cleaned the rooms, and served the food. Some of these workers had given decades of their lives to the hotel and they built a middle class life around their union job.

But in 2020, the hotel was forced into bankruptcy. Overseas investors took advantage of the situation and snapped up the hotel at a deep discount. When the hotel reopened aer renovations, the longtime workers expected that the new owners would give them their jobs back. But instead, the new owners chose to further line their own pockets by discarding the union workers, hiring a subcontracting agency, and bringing on new employees who they could pay a fraction of union wages.

Disregard for NYC law

During the pandemic, our union had urged the NYC Council to pass a law that would protect the City’s hotel workers in the event that their hotels changed hands or employers. In September 2020, the City Council voted 45 to 4 to pass the Displaced Hotel Service Workers Act, which requires that hotels retain employees for at least 90 days following a sale of a hotel or other change in control. The law went into effect while the Surrey hotel was closed for renovations.

When the hotel reopened in October 2024, our union notified the hotel’s new owner and management company of our view of their obligation to retain the workers under the law. On multiple occasions, we sent them lists of all of the workers, along with copies of their resumes. Workers also re-applied for the open positions directly. Nearly every worker with the Surrey included on their resume was denied even the opportunity to interview. Ironically, the very people most qualified to work at the Surrey were likely being discriminated against because of their union experience.

What are we doing about it?

The former Surrey workers have filed a lawsuit alleging that the new owner of the Surrey breached city law by refusing to give them their jobs back. 

Our union has also filed unfair labor practice charges, alleging that the hotel discriminated against employees by failing to recall or hire nearly every Surrey worker who applied for their job back based on their support of our union. The case is currently pending before the National Labor Relations Board.

We’re taking the story to the public.

In addition to fighting this out in court and at the Labor Board, our union has taken the workers’ story to the public.

Kicking off on Met Gala Monday, over 200 union members came together in solidarity with the former Surrey workers to demand they be rehired. In the pouring rain, we chanted “Shame on the Surrey,” alerting press and the celebrities staying at the Surrey of the injustice taking place and drawing attention to our fight in the news.

Our union has deployed other attention-grabbing tactics since then. We’ve been regularly flyering outside the hotel, getting the word out about the hotel’s refusal to hire the loyal former employees to hotel guests and members of the public.

We’re applying pressure across the country. We’ve leafleted at the company’s hotels in South Beach and downtown Manhattan, and delegated management at their hotel in L.A.

On June 4, 2025, we confronted the CEO of management company Corinthia, Simon Casson, in front of his peers as he head-lined an investment conference at the Florence Gould Theater. As the hoteliers and investors arrived at the conference, they were greeted by swarms of union members yelling “Shame on the Surrey” and a vibrant LED truck with the faces of the workers whom the Surrey has refused to rehire. We distributed hundreds of flyers with the backstory to the curious passersby and conference attendees. Inside the conference, HTC General Organizer Samantha Klein and former Surrey worker Cheryl Gravesande interrupted Simon Casson and Pradeep Raman, Managing Director of the Surrey, during their keynote presentation and confronted them for refusing to rehire the former workers.

The fight is capturing the aention of the very NYC elected officials who passed the Displaced Hotel Service Workers Act in the first place, and who know the intention of the law clearly. The NYC Council Member who represents the Upper East Side district where the Surrey is, Keith Powers, expressed his support for the former Surrey workers. “I’ve got some news for you: We’re stronger, we’re faster, and we’re together,” said the Council Member.

We’re gearing up to launch other actions, and we won’t stop until every worker is offered their jobs back.

Fran Drescher, President of SAG-AFTRA and iconic star of The Nanny, joined our call to rehire the former Surrey workers!