(NEW YORK CITY) - New York City was still climbing out of the Great Recession when the Resorts World Casino opened in Jamaica, Queens in 2011.  Rich Maroko, President of the Hotel and Gaming Trades (HTC) Council, remembers tens of thousands of desperate candidates applying to work “kind of shitty jobs” at the massive complex. But the Trades Council, the Union representing Hospitality and Gaming Workers around New York and New Jersey, butted their way into the Casino’s licensing process and organized Resorts World Staff.  After a grueling bargaining process, the Hotel Trades Council secured a contract that doubled wages overnight and provided health care and retirement benefits. 

“I remember doing the ratification there and it was really one of the most fulfilling moments in my professional career,” says Maroko, the Union’s General Counsel at the time. “People were just so stunned by what the Union had delivered.” 

That focus on rapid, transformative change has helped make Maroko one of the most powerful Union Leaders in the City.

Since ascending to HTC President in 2020, he’s shrewdly supported Mayors Bill de Blasio and Eric Adams, Governor Kathy Hochul and various City and State Legislators.

In turn, those allies helped weaken competition from Non-Union lodging, codify hotel safety standards and expand the State’s Gaming Industry. 

With another Mayoral Election approaching and three new casino licenses on the way, the Hotel Trades Council will once again play a crucial role in New York politics in 2025.

But instead of hedging behind their growing power, Maroko and HTC are doubling down. 

Sitting in his fifth floor office at the Union’s modest Midtown Headquarters, Maroko remembers his time as a frustrated Labor Attorney in Syracuse.

The son of politically progressive Immigrants from Brazil and Poland, he had turned down more lucrative corporate jobs out of law school to make a difference, but soon wondered what difference he was actually making. 

“The process was just not designed to provide any sort of real justice or real change for working folks,” Maroko recalls of his time in litigation.

To Continue Reading This Labor News Report, Go To: One of the city’s most powerful union leaders is used to big wins. He wants more. - The Chief