Hotel workers to attend Tuesday’s City Planning Commission hearing to speak against plans to rezone development

New Orleans, LA – Unionized hospitality workers in New Orleans with UNITE HERE Local 23 are opposing the terms of a proposal for the development of a new Downtown convention hotel. Workers are concerned that this deal risks handing over hundreds of millions in subsidies to Omni Hotels & Resorts, a multibillion-dollar corporation, during a time when working people in the city struggle to make ends meet and the city is having to cut services due to budget problems. On Tuesday April 14, hospitality workers will speak at a City Planning Commission hearing to consider whether to rezone the proposed hotel development site to allow for a hotel more than two times the height than what is currently allowed.

An independent report put public cost of the tax subsidies for this project as proposed at $669 million over the life of the tax cuts. At a time when the city and the state are facing enormous budget problems, this doesn’t seem smart. In addition to a property tax cut, Omni is seeking a significant development bonus in the form of a zoning amendment, and to purchase a public street.

Hospitality workers say that the city should reject the proposal until taxpayers know exactly how much it’s going to cost them. As proposed, Omni would hit their $57 million profit target by year 11 and enjoy the tax cuts for a long time after that. At the same time, the people of New Orleans have seen their rents go up 27% since 2019, and groceries and utilities climb by roughly 40%.

“Taxes are going up and insurance is skyrocketing. Despite everything getting more expensive, it sometimes feels like our city is crumbling. We live in a hospitality-focused city, but too many hospitality workers are working 2 or 3 or even more jobs just to stay afloat,” said Kamille McCuin, a Cocktail Server at Caesars New Orleans, during a City Planning Commission meeting on Wednesday, March 25. “We’ve had five water main breaks in three months. Power outages have reached a new peak. So why are we talking about even more subsidies for a luxury hotel developer? Our neighborhoods, our communities, and our working people need a break, not Omni.”

“We are not against building a new hotel. We understand that the convention center can benefit from more visitors and a new hotel, but if there’s a demand for it, it doesn’t need so much public subsidy. We’re not going to sit back and allow Omni to line their pockets at the expense of taxpaying citizens who are already struggling with the rising cost of living,” said Willie Woods, UNITE HERE Local 23 New Orleans Chapter President. “We want to make sure that the hotel is built responsibly so that these jobs can have a positive impact on our community and new hotel jobs can benefit New Orleans. But the way it’s set up now is only going to hurt us.”

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UNITE HERE Local 23 represents 28,000 hospitality workers from universities and museums to airport concessions, casinos, hotel and parking attendants – including hundreds of contracted food service workers at Google and Meta. Local 23 members are active in Georgia, Mississippi, Charlotte, Nashville, DC, Boise, Indiana, Denver, New Orleans, Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, and Virginia