New York Hotel and Gaming Trades Council

What New York Hotel and Gaming Trades Council does

The New York Hotel and Gaming Trades Council (HTC), AFL-CIO is a nonprofit labor union founded in 1938/1939 that represents approximately 40,000 hotel, gaming, casino, private club, and racetrack workers across New York City, New York State, and New Jersey. Its core product is collective bargaining representation, delivered through master agreements — most notably the Industry-Wide Agreement (IWA) covering 30,000 workers at 250+ NYC hotels and the Greater Region Industry-Wide Agreement (GRIWA) covering 8,000 workers at 100+ upstate and NJ properties — plus ancillary member services including employer-paid family healthcare, pension and 401(k) administration, pre-paid legal services, college scholarships (over $10 million distributed since 1987), free vocational training (front desk/OPERA, ESL, CPR, security, dealer training), and a Hiring Enforcement Office that connects members with union job openings. Its organizing engine is the HEAT SYSTEM, a grassroots communication network launched in 2006 that mobilizes 27,000 members through 2,700 volunteer HEAT Captains organized into workplace teams of 10–15 members, enabling coordinated contract campaigns, political action, and new-property organizing through NLRB elections.

The union is funded almost entirely by recurring weekly member dues set at three tiers: $30.39/week for Dues A (NYC hotel, casino, and club workers), $12.94/week for Dues B (off-site restaurant workers and members outside NYC), and $126.35/season for Dues C (Saratoga horse track seasonal workers), with annual 2% escalators, one-time initiation fees of $100–$200, and a Defense Fund contribution totaling $1,040 upfront plus $2/month thereafter. GTM motion is community-led: non-union workers contact organizers confidentially, build majority support in secret, and file for NLRB elections; once certified, the union negotiates contracts and enforces them through grievance and arbitration. The 2026–2034 IWA — the longest and largest wage package in the union's history — anchors forward revenue visibility and labor peace across NYC's unionized hotel sector, while ongoing organizing at boutique, lifestyle, theme park, and Atlantic City casino properties signals continued membership expansion.

Name

New York Hotel and Gaming Trades Council

Legal name

Hotel and Gaming Trades Council, AFL-CIO

Website

https://hotelworkers.org

Company type

Private

Founded year

1939

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

101–250 employees

Short description

The New York Hotel and Gaming Trades Council is a nonprofit AFL-CIO labor union representing roughly 40,000 hotel, casino, gaming, private club, and racetrack workers across New York City, New York State, and New Jersey through industry-wide collective bargaining agreements and member services.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Labor Union Services

NAICS

Labor Unions and Similar Labor Organizations (813930)

SIC

Services-Membership Organizations (8600)

akta.pro industry

PRIMARYFSAIAFAG

Taft-Hartley / Union Multiemployer Group Health Plans

Financial & Insurance/Insurance — Life & Health/Group Health Insurance (Employer-Sponsored)

SECONDARYHLAEALAL

Workers’ Compensation & Occupational Health TPA

Healthcare & Life Sciences/Health Insurance & Managed Care/Third-Party Administration (TPA) & Administrative Services Only (ASO)

Keywords

• Labor union representation
• Collective bargaining agreements
• Hotel worker organizing
• Gaming worker representation
• Union contract negotiation

Headquarters

HQ city

New York

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Infrastructure, Others

Revenue model

1. Union Dues: The union is funded through membership dues paid by 40,000+ members. Dues fund representation, protection, staff (100+ professionals including lawyers, business agents, organizers), contract tools, defense fund, and union operations including building maintenance and materials.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels6 records

Core offering

HTC is a labor union representing 40,000 hotel, gaming, casino, private club, and racetrack workers across New York and New Jersey. The union negotiates and enforces industry-wide collective bargaining agreements (IWA, GRIWA, Division A), delivers member benefits including employer-funded healthcare, pension, pre-paid legal services, scholarships, and free job training, and organizes non-union workers through the HEAT SYSTEM grassroots mobilization network.

Product overview

The New York Hotel and Gaming Trades Council (HTC) is a labor union, not a technology product company. Its core offerings are member services including union representation, health benefits administration, retirement/pension plans, college scholarships, free job training classes (front desk, ESL, CPR, security, dealer training), and the HEAT SYSTEM for member mobilization. The union negotiates and enforces collective bargaining agreements including the Industry Wide Agreement (IWA) covering 30,000 NYC hotel workers, GRIWA covering 8,000 workers outside NYC, and Division A covering boutique hotel workers. Additional services include pre-paid legal assistance, a writing contest for members' children, delegate training programs, and the Hotel Voice quarterly newsletter. The organization operates a text alert system for member communications.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Union Representation Services

Quantifiable outcome

• Most union hotel workers in NYC earn nearly $40/hour - double what most non-union hotel workers make
• +4 more outcomes

Named customers6 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature1 record

Partnerships

One partnership is on record.

• Hotel Association of New York CityflagshipStrategic or Co-development Partner · 18 May 2026The union negotiates the Industry-Wide Agreement (IWA) with the Hotel Association of New York City, covering 30,000 hotel workers at 250+ NYC properties. The IWA is a master agreement that sets wages, benefits, and working conditions across the industry. The new 8-year IWA (July 2026 - June 2034) delivers the biggest wage increases in the union's history, maintains free family healthcare, and increases pension contributions.

Scale indicators7 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Regional players

• UNITE HERE Local 11: UNITE HERE Local 11 represents hospitality workers across Southern California, including hotels in Los Angeles. It is one of UNITE HERE's largest hotel worker locals and operates the same collective bargaining, benefits administration, and political mobilization model as HTC.
• UNITE HERE Local 26: UNITE HERE Local 26 represents hotel, food service, and gaming workers across Greater Boston and New England. It operates an analogous multi-employer bargaining and benefits administration model serving the regional hospitality industry.
• UNITE HERE Local 54: UNITE HERE Local 54 represents approximately 18,000 casino and hotel workers in Atlantic City, New Jersey — directly comparable to HTC's gaming division. The union has historically negotiated parallel industry-wide agreements and shares the AFL-CIO/Taft-Hartley benefit structure.
• UNITE HERE Local 5: UNITE HERE Local 5 represents hotel, food service, and gaming workers in Las Vegas, Nevada — the country's largest gaming labor market. The local negotiates similar industry-wide gaming agreements to HTC's GRIWA and IWA frameworks.
• UNITE HERE Local 1: UNITE HERE Local 1 represents hotel, food service, and gaming workers in Chicago and Illinois. Comparable to HTC in both representation scope and the use of industry-wide master agreements with major hospitality employers.
• UNITE HERE Local 7: UNITE HERE Local 7 represents hotel, food service, and gaming workers in San Francisco and Northern California. The local's mission and structure — collective bargaining, dues-funded benefits, member organizing — closely mirrors HTC's operating model.

Direct peers

• UNITE HERE Local 100: UNITE HERE Local 100 represents hotel and food service workers in New York City, operating alongside HTC with the same collective bargaining model and overlapping industry focus. Both unions cover NYC hospitality labor and negotiate with shared employer counterparts.

Others

• AFL-CIO: AFL-CIO is the parent labor federation of which HTC is an affiliate. While not a direct operating peer, AFL-CIO sets the policy and political coordination framework under which HTC mobilizes its 40,000 members for legislative and electoral campaigns.
• Hotel Association of New York City: HANYC is the primary employer-side counterparty with which HTC negotiates the Industry-Wide Agreement. While not a peer in the worker-representation business, it operates in the same NYC hospitality labor market and is the structural counterpart to HTC's bargaining position.
• Service Employees International Union (SEIU): SEIU is a major North American labor union with comparable scale, dues-funded membership model, multi-employer bargaining approach, and political mobilization infrastructure. While its core membership is in healthcare and property services rather than hotels, its operating model overlaps with HTC's labor representation and benefits administration.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/NYHTC
• Facebookfacebook.com/hoteltradescouncil
• Instagraminstagram.com/nyhtc

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles2 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about New York Hotel and Gaming Trades Council