What are the terms? Eight years of security. Average wage increases of more than 50% over the life of the contract. Free family healthcare protected. An increase to pension contributions. Brand new benefit funds to address the rising cost of housing and child care. Improvements to paid time off. Additional rights at work. Even more power to enforce the contract. And more. All without a single giveback.
How did we win this contract? In these pages, I will break down what gave us power at the negotiating table, and the fight to not leave anyone behind.
Hotel workers deserve every single dollar, benefit, and protection we have won under the new IWA contract. But make no mistake – management agreed to the terms of this contract for one reason: because our union had power. A lot of it.
Heading into bargaining, management knew that the threat that our union could and would strike was very real. The threat of a strike or a picket line is our union’s most powerful weapon. In every contract fight, we need management to understand that if they won’t agree to a fair contract at the bargaining table, we will take our fight to the streets.
Management also knew that an HTC picket line would be particularly effective at turning away customers and decimating their bottom line. Why?
Over the last year, management witnessed thousands of union members, in record-breaking numbers, mobilize to rallies, canvassing events, and trainings. When the hotel industry saw how active our union's membership is, it sent a clear signal to management that our members are behind their union and would strike if we had to.
They knew that our union could afford to strike. Between the savings in our Defense Fund and the dramatic increase our union helped secure in New York’s unemployment benefits last year, our members had the financial resources to sustain an effective strike.
Our union used its political power to push for legislation in recent years that would give guests more rights during a strike and make it easier for the public to support our boycotts and picket lines. If management forced a strike, New York City’s consumer protection laws would have kicked in, and the hotels would have been required to notify guests and offer refunds.
Our union wages creative and effective media campaigns through social media, digital advertisements, boycott websites, and more. We were prepared to run a full-scale public campaign to put pressure on hotel companies to sign a fair contract if that's what it would take.
Leading up to negotiations, our union created multiple consumer-facing websites for travelers coming to NYC for major events, including the FIFA World Cup. These websites allowed consumers to check whether there was any risk of strikes, picket lines, or boycotts at hotels in the NYC area, and to sign up for alerts that would inform them if their upcoming hotel stay would be affected.
Our union knows what it takes to run an effective picket line, and our operations team was prepared for the possibility of a city-wide strike. We acquired new tools, including an inflatable bedbug (named “Bandit the Bloodsucker” via popular vote). We also took steps to modernize our picket line operations, including building a new digital check-in app and technology to efficiently register members for strike benefits and picket shifts.
Because thousands of members have knocked on doors and built our union's political power, we entered negotiations with powerful allies on our side. Our union had a friend in the Governor, the State Comptroller, the NYC Mayor, the NYC Comptroller, Public Advocate, Borough Presidents, and the entire City Council. We could count on our allies in government to stand with us, just as they had in the months leading up to our contract's anticipated expiration.
Whether it was Governor Kathy Hochul making drastic improvements to unemployment benefits in the lead up to our contract's expiration, or NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani rallying with hotel workers against union-busting employers at the Surrey, or the City and State Comptrollers ensuring that public pension investments aren't going to companies with active labor disputes – we knew that if we found ourselves in a fight, we would not be alone.
At the heart of our power is you. Management could see that our union was strong. Your managers saw you wearing your union buttons. They watched as you stepped up to lead as HEAT CAPTAINS and joined HEAT TEAMS. They noticed that you showed up to union events by the thousands. The truth is: management felt the power of the union radiating across the hotel floors – power created by your solidarity and courage. In fact, I am certain that many of your managers not only paid attention to it, but that they reported this to their bosses: you were informed, united, and ready to fight.
So many pieces went into winning this contract but, ultimately, we wouldn't have won it without you. This victory belongs to each of you, and you should be very proud.
Hundreds of HTC members rallied with elected officials on the steps of NYC City Hall a few months before the anticipated expiration of our city-wide contract. It was a powerful show of solidarity with a simple message: The World Cup should uplift hotel workers.
Our union hit back after the hotel industry launched a $500k ad campaign in which a representative for the industry reportedly "raged" over our "cushy" union contract in an attempt to build sympathy for billionaire hotel owners. Over 40 elected officials reposted our video, sending the message to management that if our union needed to turn up to the heat, we could share genuinely compelling stories.
HEAT CAPTAIN recruitment continued in full swing. Across NYC, thousands of you joined HEAT TEAMS.
Over 1,000 HTC members marched on May Day. With just two months until July 1st, this was a timely preview for management of what it looks like when union members come together.
WHAT'S NEXT?
This summer, as we celebrated the new IWA, thousands of non-union hotel workers across New York and New Jersey were still making poverty-level wages, enduring back-breaking workloads, facing demeaning treatment, and generally working in an environment of fear and intimidation. Some of these courageous hotel workers are organizing to join our union and to better their lives.
This includes the workers at two Times Square hotels, who took to the streets this summer to fight for their first union contract.
On Monday, June 29, 2026, hotel workers at the Fairfield by Marriott and the Four Points by Sheraton Times Square began picketing outside of the hotels.
The workers at these hotels voted to join our union years ago. Housekeeping workers were paid half of the union standard in NYC – nearly $40,000 less per YEAR. They could not afford the hotel's prohibitively expensive health insurance, and most had nothing saved for retirement.
Hotel management went to great lengths to try to avoid signing a fair contract. Throughout years of negotiations, our union had to file multiple charges accusing the hotel of committing unfair labor practices.
“We got really tired of being pushed down,” said Joshua Reyes, an Engineer at the Fairfield by Marriott Times Square. “We feel suffocated. We wanted to bring ourselves up. We wanted, you know, our voices to be heard. We wanted to be recognized.”
Our union's picket line ran non-stop – 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. In the end, over 8,000 volunteers showed up.
Dozens of elected officials, including Governor Hochul and Mayor Mamdani, joined the picket line and spoke out in support of the workers. Unions across the state picketed in solidarity.
Our boycott team rebooked guests at union hotels, ran digital ads on booking sites to persuade guests not to stay at the boycotted hotels, and flyered at nearby conferences and events to turn away group business.
It worked. On August 14, 2026, management caved and the workers celebrated their first union contract: the IWA. The agreement provides immediate wage increases between $10 and $15 an hour, more than $50,000 in back pay each, free family healthcare, access to a retirement plan, and all of the other rights and protections in our master contract.
It is a victory nothing short of life-changing for these workers.
These workers were fighting for the same wages, benefits, and job standards that you already have under your union contract. While it was a moral responsibility to back up these workers, it is also true that, in every fight we enter, your boss is watching.
When we show up in force in moments like these, it sends a clear message to management: the workers, united, will never be defeated.
In Solidarity,
Rich Maroko
HTC President
