Looks like the little guys will get shafted again: City Councilwoman Julie Menin just cut a deal with the large hotels to buy off their opposition to her union-giveaway “Safe Hotels Act.”
She’s tossed in some carveouts to the bill to appease the Hotel Association of New York City, which reps the big outfits — smaller, mostly outer-borough and significantly minority-owned hotels still get the shaft.
The big winner is the politically potent Hotel and Gaming Trade Council — which will gain the leverage to unionize (or shut down) the quarter of the industry it hasn’t already unionized.
Hotels that aren’t union shops won’t qualify for a city license and without a license they have to close — or become emergency city shelters.
Some choice, eh?
The NYC Minority Hotel Association — formed to oppose this bill — won’t have the pull to derail it, unless outer-borough council members wake up and defend their constituents.
To be clear, the “safety” measures in the bill are just the excuse for the special-interest giveaway: The mandates for panic buttons etc. are trivial.
No: The whole point is to make the independent entrepreneurs either bend the knee (and raise rates, if they can stay in business that way) or close, at the cost of thousands of jobs.
Room rates across the city will rise, further denting tourism.
But, hey, the union wins, as does Menin, who’s eyeing a run for higher office and is willing to sacrifice as many little folks as it takes to get the HGTC’s backing.
Bet that the big hotels learn to regret throwing the small ones to the wolves: The next time the union demands fresh scalps, it’ll be theirs.