| The New York Hotel and Motel Trades Council, | | | | were horrendous. Treatment was unjust and |
| AFL-CIO, (Hotel Trades Council for short), is the | | | | demeaning. Benefits were non-existent. Hours were |
| union of hotel workers in New York City. Our 27,000 | | | | brutally long and wages pitifully low. |
| militant members are from diverse ethnic and racial | | | | Every previous attempt at unionization, including a |
| backgrounds and include large numbers of immigrants | | | | general strike by New York City hotel and restaurant |
| and women. | | | | workers in 1912, had been crushed by the hotel |
| Labor unions are the most important progressive and | | | | owners. |
| grassroots organizations in the United States. Unlike | | | | Our first industry-wide contract was signed on |
| many other nonprofits, unions are controlled and | | | | January 18, 1939 and included a ground-breaking |
| funded entirely by the constituency they serve - the | | | | provision banning discrimination in employment. The |
| working people who make up their membership. | | | | Hotel Trades Council, and its affiliated locals, have |
| Every day, unions are on the front lines in the real | | | | since been at the forefront of the civil rights |
| fight for democracy and justice. | | | | movement. |
| The New York Hotel Trades Council was formed in | | | | For over seventy years, our union has been a |
| the late 1930's in a massive city-wide campaign to | | | | powerful force for social justice, progress, and human |
| organize the hotel industry. | | | | rights, and has made life better for literally hundreds |
| Until then, hotel employees were among the most | | | | of thousands of hotel workers and the members of |
| exploited workers in New York. Working conditions | | | | their families. |