42 Search Results for "Discrimination"

The Story of the First Contract

The “Industry-Wide Agreement” (“IWA” for short), is the Hotel Trades Council’s master union contract with the Hotel Association of New York City, Inc. (which is the union of the hotel owners). Today, the IWA covers 28,000 members of the Hotel Trades Council in New York City – the vast majority of our union’s members, including employees of every type of hotel and motel, large and small, not only in the center of Manhattan but throughout New York City, including the outer boroughs.

An In-Depth Look at the Career of HTC’s New President, Rich Maroko

August 12, 2020 4:04 PM

By Former President Peter Ward

When I announced to the General Officers and Executive Boards of HTC and Local 6 and the Local 6 Delegate Assembly that I had decided to retire, I recommended that Rich Maroko be appointed to fill my vacant offices. I explained to them the many reasons why I believed Rich’s appointment would be good for our Union.

The purpose of this report is to provide you with the same detailed description of Rich’s biography and career with HTC and Local 6. Most of you who know him, know how hard-fighting and smart he is and how much he cares about our members, but I think it is accurate to assume that you do not have as complete a knowledge of his many accomplishments on behalf of our Union as I have. Read more...

New York passes nation’s strongest ban on evictions and foreclosures

On December 28th, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo signed the COVID-19 Emergency Eviction and Foreclosure Prevention Act. The law effectively enacts a 60-day eviction and foreclosure moratorium for all New York tenants and homeowners until February 26, 2021. New Yorkers who are experiencing financial hardship due to the COVID-19 pandemic and who submit a hardship declaration form are prevented from being evicted or having their home foreclosed on for even longer, until May 1, 2021.

With the bill’s signing, New York State now has the strongest eviction moratorium in the nation. Read more...

Turning the clock backwards on workers safety

It was one hundred years ago this year that 146 workers lost their lives within minutes at the Triangle Factory Fire. The tragic events of Saturday, March 25, 1911, were remembered with special feeling this year.

The 2021 Freedom Rides: HTC Marches with Thousands in Washington D.C. to Fight Voter Suppression

This year marks the 60th anniversary of the 1961 Freedom Rides, when a brave group of civil rights activists organized protests against segregation from Washington D.C. through the South, facing angry mobs and violence during their journey. Sixty years later, the fight for civil rights is far from over with an assault on the voting rights of Americans — specifically Black, Brown, and working class people—in full force in present day America. Read more...

Let’s Look at the Issues

There are very few adults in the U.S. who at one time or another weren’t personally touched by a Pete Seeger song. Seeger, who died last week at the age of 94, was a fervent civil rights activist, an determined environmentalist, a fierce civil liberties advocate, and an exceedingly strong union supporter.

Let’s Look at the Issues

While we observe the memory of the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. this week, we think it is equally appropriate to look back at another important figure of the civil rights movement, Franklin McCain, who passed away this week.

HTC Pickets Woolworth in Times Square in Solidarity with Sit-Ins Across the South

In February 1960, four brave Black college students walked into a “whites only” lunch counter at a Greensboro, North Carolina Woolworth and sat down, igniting a protest movement to end segregation that spread across the country. The students – Ezell Blair Jr., David Richmond, Franklin McCain and Joseph McNeil – each ordered a cup of coffee and after being refused service, sat quietly in protest until the store closed. The student activists returned the next day in greater numbers and stoically bore the harassment and verbal abuse by white customers. By the third day, the number of peaceful protestors had swelled to the hundreds.

As the Greensboro sit-ins gained national attention, students across the South organized similar sit-ins at Woolworth and other segregated establishments. The activists were often met with aggression, police violence, and even bomb threats. In New York City, our Union organized a picket line of its own outside the Times Square Woolworth in solidarity with the civil rights activists. Read more...