71 Search Results for "economy"
Let’s look at the issues
This summer the U.S. Senate passed a bill that will enact comprehensive immigration reform. It isn’t a perfect bill, but it is at least a step in the right direction. It would relieve the terrible stress suffered by many undocumented workers who fear that they or family members will be deported. It would provide a somewhat cumbersome but nevertheless navigable path to U.S. citizenship for the 11 million undocumented workers in the U.S. and it would open doors of opportunity for them.
Let’s Look at the Issues
Let’s hear it for Senator Kirsten Gillibrand! She has introduced legislation that would allow millions of college graduates to reduce their debt on student loans by refinancing at a lower interest rate. Furthermore, she has called on President Obama to lead the charge on this effort.
Let’s Look at the Issues
The average American family today carries three times the debt load that the average American family carried 20 years ago.
NYC Council Approves Hotel Worker Severance Bill 40 to 3
On Thursday, September 23rd, the New York City Council voted overwhelmingly to pass the Hotel Worker Severance Bill. The bill, designed to incentivize closed hotels to reopen, requires closed hotels with at least 100 guest rooms to either reopen and recall at least 25% of their staff by November 1st or pay $500 per week to laid off employees for up to 30 weeks. Read more...
Some Notes on Unemployment Insurance
While Congressional Democrats are calling for an emergency extension of federal unemployment benefits, Republicans have a different idea. And unless enough public pressure mounts, Republicans may win this issue.
Campaign to Raise the Minimum Wage Continues
As we reported briefly in last week’s edition, hundreds of members of our Union turned out at a May 7 rally to raise the minimum wage. The featured speaker at the Union Square rally was Governor Andrew Cuomo, and he did not mince words in saying that New York’s working poor deserve a raise. Cuomo’s remarks were not political rhetoric. He backed them up with executive action.
Members Travel to Albany to Lobby Legislators
Almost 200 members journeyed to Albany on March 10, as part of the Share Better coalition, to lobby legislators. The members—and others—split into groups and met with more than 50 members of the New York State Assembly and Senate to express concerns about illegal hotels, illegal apartment rentals and Airbnb, the company whose web service helps enables these violations of the law.
Hotels keep going up: what does this mean for HTC members?
Despite an unprecedented surge of hotel-building in the city from 2008 through 2010, an additional 40 hotels are already scheduled for completion by 2013. A significant number of these new hotels are (or will be) non-union and determined to remain that way. Every non-union hotel is a direct threat to the continuation of the rights, protections, and benefits generations of our members have fought for and won.
Winning Better Contracts
When HTC President Rich Maroko announced our Union’s strategic plan last year, we were just months away from the expiration of the GRIWA and Upstate Casino contracts. Those negotiations were tough – but in the end, we left the bargaining table with landmark contracts that dramatically increased wages, protected benefits, and established brand new funds and rights that will pave the way for our Union’s future. Read more...
